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wpperspectivesVol. 8 No. 3 November 2010

University Signs Partnership Agreement With China’s Zhejiang University of TechnologyWilliam Paterson has signed a sister university strategic relationship memorandum with Zhejiang University of Technology in Hangzhou, China, that establishes the University as the Chinese university’s Students Overseas Training Center for North America.

Xiaocun Wang, chairman of the University Affairs Committee at Zhejiang University of Technology, as well as several other university administrators, visited the campus on September 24 to sign the agreement, which designates William Paterson as Zhejiang University of Technology’s preferred higher education partner in the United States.

In establishing the training center, Zhejiang will send students to William Paterson for short-term programs administered through the University’s Cotsakos College of Business. Programs include hands-on training in finance, biology and environmental science, and American culture, with plans to expand to computer science and other disciplines in the future.

“We are honored that Zhejiang University of Technology has selected William Paterson as its preferred strategic higher education partner in the United States,” says Kathleen Waldron, president of William Paterson University. “We are proud to collaborate with such a distinguished Chinese higher education institution.”

“We have enjoyed a long relationship with Zhejiang University of Technology and we look forward to expanding and developing programs that are mutually beneficial to our institutions,” says Edward Weil, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Zhejiang University of Technology is situated in the city of Hangzhou, one of the ancient capitals of China. The university, with an enrollment of approxi-mately thirty-five thousand students, is considered one of the top one hundred institutions of higher education in China.

William Paterson Students Win First Place Award in National Financial Planning Association Competition

Three William Paterson students, Nathan Phil-

lips, Nicholas Scheibner, and Cagla Yildirim, won

the first place overall award in the National

Financial Planning Challenge at the National

Financial Planning Association (FPA) conference

in Denver, Colorado recently.

Their team was one of eight finalists

who were flown to Denver, Colorado for the

three-day final phase of the contest, where

they competed in a Jeopardy-style knowledge

bowl, and had thirty-six hours to adjust their

financial plan after a “life-changing event”

occurred in the life of their sample client.

They presented their plan to a group of pro-

fessionals and professors who were judges

at the conference.

“You can either wait for opportuni-

ties, or you can create your own,” says

Scheibner, a senior focused on a career

as a financial planner, who recently co-

founded the first official student chap-

ter of the FPA in the United States on

the William Paterson campus which

led to the competition.

Concerned about facing a

competitive job market and hop-

ing to avoid a behind-the-scenes

financial analysis job where

Xiaocun Wang (center), chairman of the University Affairs Committee at Zhejiang University of Technology, and President Kathleen Waldron sign the partnership agreement. Looking on is Shuyi Jia, a global business major

New Dean Believes in Collaboration

This month, we continue our

series of campus interviews

as we speak with Candace

Burns, Dean of the College of

Education. She comes to the

University from the Univer-

sity of Arkansas—Little Rock,

where she served as Associate

Dean of the College of Education.

During her career, she has focused

on numerous education issues, including

educational decision making, educational assessment

and accountability, and teacher evaluation. She joined the

University on July 1.

Q. What attracted you to the position of dean of the College

of Education at William Paterson?

One thing that attracted me was the high quality of faculty,

professional staff, students, and leaders in the College of

Education and at William Paterson University. For example, a

number of faculty members in the College have received Ful-

bright grants to immerse themselves and their students in other

societies and cultures in countries such as Namibia, Rwanda,

and the Netherlands. These faculty and others in the College

have active scholarly agendas and expertise in issues and chal-

lenges of global and multicultural education for teachers and

other educational professionals. I also much admired the quality

of educator preparation at William Paterson and the dedication

of the faculty, professional staff, and partner schools, especially in

exploring systematically different methods, models, and pathways

for educating teacher candidates. When I was interviewed, the

commitment of the faculty and staff in the College of Education

to sustained partnerships with the public schools was very evi-

dent. In particular, the varied offerings for new teachers in their

pre-tenure years and the work of faculty and professional staff in

tandem with experienced teachers to form mutually supportive

learning communities had been in place for many years—even

before professional development schools became the chic

thing among educational organizations. I believe that the full

complement of educational specialties is essential to educating

individuals who are prepared to be active initiators in help-

ing educational organizations, their students, and colleagues

toward better life opportunities.

Q. What is your philosophy on leading a college of

education?

One mark of a good college of education is collabora-

tion—colleague-to-colleague, college-to-college, and

university-to-university, inclusive of its larger commu-

nity. This can include research partnerships with other

states, international projects, or joint projects with

school partners. I also believe that collegiality and positive social

climate in a college helps to make our members thrive profes-

sionally and personally. I’m a progressive in terms of how I view

education—it must be relevant, meaningful, applied, and, most im-

portantly, it should help future educational professionals and their

students become informed citizens and activists in bringing the best

ideas to bear in educational and other work settings. Our profes-

sional development schools are an embodiment of that philosophy.

Q. What are your goals for the College of Education?

I would like for the College of Education and its partners to work

together to create a strategic plan. Of course, we haven’t had the

opportunity to do this yet. One important personal goal of mine is

to better spread the word about what we’re doing here at William

Paterson in the College of Education. Another is to support and

foster more collaboration so that we might have a bigger impact

in terms of research around issues such as pathways to becoming

teachers, teacher induction, and retention. I also believe that we

are doing wonderful work along with our partners in the profes-

sional development schools, where we have model partnerships.

Our Child Development Center is nationally recognized for excel-

lence. My dream is to have a more central teaching and research

center, to create a hub for us to showcase our research on best

practices in education.

Q. What are the trends in the pedagogy of teaching and how is the

College incorporating them into the curriculum for our students?

One of the important emphases in higher education is multicul-

tural and global education. There are critical pedagogies concern-

ing what practices work best in which situations, and faculty have

active research agendas around these topics. Also important is

differentiated instruction, which asks the question: how do we do a

better job in educating students of different cultures and ethnicities

and students with disabilities? There also is a renewed emphasis on

those strategies in the field of bilingual/ESL education.

Q. What can we do to help teacher candidates prepare for the

future in such a challenging environment?

My former statistics professor referred to the “invisible college,”

which I thought was unbearably corny at the time—the network

of colleagues and professional associations that supports us in

preparing for the future. In the College of Education, we call this

“college” a professional development partnership. That is, our

future teachers, administrators, and counselors are engaged in

public schools who partner with us in mutually renewing profes-

sional development. Our teacher candidates observe early and

often teachers and faculty who are lifelong learners and partners in

exploring what works best in specific instructional contexts. School

partners give us good feedback about our graduates, and we hear

repeatedly that they come to their new work settings very well-

prepared. Our partnerships help us become truly attuned to what

districts need for future educator preparation; and they, in turn,

look forward to working with our graduates.

28

wpperspectives

Top: President Waldron (right) attends the

William Paterson University Foundation’s Second

Annual Golf Outing. With her are (from left)

Sandra S. Deller, vice president, institutional ad-

vancement; Sam Basu, dean, Cotsakos College of

Business; Richard Garcia and Jeff Buonforte, both

from Lakeland Bank

Middle: The University celebrated Homecoming

in October. With President Waldron (center) at

the event are (from left) Chris McCollum ’92; Julie

Ravo ’91, M.A.’92; Debbie Gantert ’77; Jean Aires

’64, M.A. ’88; Anthony Ardis ’77, with daughter

Amanda Ardis; and Doug Hamilton ’75, president

of the Alumni Association Executive Council

Bottom: President Waldron (bottom row, second

from left) and Sandra S. Deller, vice president,

institutional advancement (back row, left) with

members of the John Victor Machuga Founda-

tion. (Top row) Al Dahab, Karim Kaspar, Joe

Makoujy; (bottom row) June Makoujy, Georgiana

Dahab, and Stacy Waldman 3

Active Agenda Marks President Waldron’s First Months on CampusFor William Paterson’s new president, Kathleen

Waldron, the first three months on campus have

been a whirlwind of activity, as she has been the

guest at numerous meetings and events designed

to introduce her to alumni, business leaders, and

members of the community.

Science Hall West Engages Students, Faculty

Faculty and students are enjoying the contemporary classrooms and research

labs, as well as the collaborative atmo-sphere, in the just-opened 67,000-square-foot

addition to Science Hall.The addition, known as Science Hall

West, maximizes the ability of faculty to teach students in sophisticated labs and small classes.

It contains eighteen state-of-the-art modular research laboratories designed to support under-graduate studies and research and twelve teaching

labs for upper-level courses. Research and labora-tory spaces are configured to allow for collaboration

between faculty and students.“The new design encourages collaboration among

the faculty since three of us are assigned to the lab space,” says Claire Leonard, associate professor of biology, who shares a research lab with fellow biology faculty members Eileen Gardner and Jaishri Menon. “It makes it easy to ask a question, or work together on a project. The space is very conducive to a col-legial environment.”

Biology professor Eileen Gardner echoes Leonard’s enthusiasm. “The idea behind the new building was to make undergraduate research easier. We now have more space to do that. The lab space also makes it more conducive to collaborate on research with other faculty since we are located together.”

The facility was designed to foster an interactive learning environment that benefits teaching and re-search; students are also impressed with the results.

Jesse Gasparro, a senior biology major who is applying to veterinary schools, says Science Hall West is a great learning environment. “When you are working on a project, you want the most updated experience and equipment for the best results and best data available, and that’s what the new labs provide,” he says.

Science Hall West is equipped throughout with the latest digital technology. Each classroom and laboratory has an electronic screen with ceiling-mounted LCD projectors, and the entire building is outfitted with wireless technology.

“I like the fact that I can be connected to the Internet anywhere in the building,” says Pradeep Patnaik, professor of biology. “I can access my notes, data, and pictures directly from my computer for my classes, and not have to drag various pieces of equip-ment around.”

4

Donjin Oh in a quiet, light-filled spot in the building

Students in one of the new classrooms

wpperspectives

He and his students have completed one summer of research

on grass and California spiders and will publish their findings in

an upcoming issue of the Journal of Arachnology. He and the

two students are co-authors of a paper titled “Gait character-

istics of two fast moving spider species (Hololena adnexa and

Hololena curta), including an aerial phase.”

Spagna believes that research opportunities are vital for

students’ education. “Research crystallizes science for students,”

Spagna says. “They get to synthesize facts and have the first

chance to apply what they have found in a creative manner. They

also get to do research on their own.”

He believes that open-ended problem-solving is a great skill

to have to get answers to questions that crop up in the lab. Plus,

research is a potential part of a career, and it’s good for students

to know whether they like research or not.

“The value of practical education is that everything a student

does in college is important,” Spagna says. “A variety of experi-

ences is essential. Students can pull nuggets of value out of those

experiences.”

Biology Professor Spins Web of Research with StudentsSpiders are predators. Spiders make their webs out of silk. Spiders

can move fast. These facts and many others about the arthropods

are the basis of research for Joseph Spagna, assistant professor of

biology, and his students.

“Spiders have a variety of features,” Spagna says. “They make

silk and venom, and it’s interesting to see how they have evolved.

Spiders that have the best venom for their food of choice will

survive better than other spiders.”

But it’s how spiders move in their environment, called loco-

motion, which is the current focus of study for Spagna. “I’m most

interested in their methods of movement. They can be quite fast

for small animals. They can run on vegetation which can be quite

waxy and slippery, and they are good at getting across leaves.

Others are skilled at running across webs. Spiders are very good

at various types of locomotion. That’s most of what we study

here, locomotion of arthropods.”

Locomotion helps spiders get away from their own predators.

“Escape is a big deal for spiders,” Spagna says. “They have to be

fast enough to escape their predators, and have different speeds

for different activities. For instance, they use a slower speed to

make a web, and a faster one when preyed upon. So they have

to be fast enough to catch food, but fast enough to escape, and

that’s what we’ve been studying the most here in the lab.”

Spagna and his students, Vivin Mohan and Edgar Valdivia,

study how quickly the spiders can increase their speeds. “We use

high-speed videography to document the characteristics that help

spiders move,” Spagna says. “We’ve documented that when run-

ning, spiders periodically have all eight legs off the ground at the

same time. Other phenomena we’ve studied include how they get

their bodies up and airborne.”

Students typically spend five hours a day in the lab during the

summer. They spend time setting up the cameras, which capture

the day’s experiments at 4,000 frames per second. The data is

downloaded into the computer where students can watch the

videos and analyze it frame-by-frame to characterize the way

spiders run.

Students attending a class held in one of the new labs

5

A Dolomedes spider

At the competition are (left to right) Luke Dean,

academic coordinator of the Financial Planning

Program, with students Nathan Phillips, Cagla

Yildirim, and Nicholas Scheibner

6

Vol. 8 No. 3 November 2010wpperspectivesWilliam Paterson University300 Pompton Road • Wayne New Jersey 07470Published by the Office of Marketing and Public RelationsCollege Hall • 973.720.2971 • fax 973.720.2418stollb2@wpunj.edu

Student Team Promotes Youth

Voter EducationA team of William Paterson University

students is determined to educate their peers about the important role young voters can play

in the United States this fall.Through the University’s American Democ-

racy Project chapter, nearly a dozen William Paterson students have been making presentations

in freshman seminar classes and at three Paterson high schools as part of their outreach campaign,

titled “Youth Vote 2K10: No Vote, No Piece.”“Studies show that students are more likely to

register and vote if they are registered by their peers,” says Christine Kelly, professor of political science and

director of the American Democracy Project on campus. “Students as a demographic can have an enormous impact if they turn out and vote, so we are trying to get

that message out.”The presentations have focused on the leverage youth

voters can have; issues that are of importance to young voters, such as health care, unemployment, and student debt; and the local elections that took place this month. In addi-tion, the students have spent numerous hours coordinating the voter registration drive on campus.

Dominick Brown, president of the Greek Senate, says students need to be educated about the issues, especially in cities such as Paterson. “Students may not think they can have an impact, but they have more of a say than they think,” says Brown, who hails from Newark. “If they vote, they can work for change in their communities.”

Also involved in the presentations is Ace Antonio, a University sophomore who won election to the board of education in his hometown of Paramus last spring. “I worked to get students to vote for me, and I won by just fifty-four votes,” he says. “I tell students to exercise their right to vote, and also that there’s no reason they can’t run for a position themselves.”

Other students involved in the project are David Rogers, Kristal Langford, and Sebastien Jean-Baptiste, along with alumna Lizbeth Davies ’10.

he’d be sitting in front of a computer all day, Scheibner took matters

in his own hands. He and fellow student Michael Ciccone worked

hard to start up the first student chapter of the prestigious group,

with Scheibner as president, and Ciccone as vice president.

Scheibner

and Ciccone

began by cold

calling financial

planners, and

invited at

least one local

professional a

month to speak

to students

about financial

planning and

professional

development.

Guest speakers

included certi-

fied financial

planners like

Cary Carbonaro of Stonegate Wealth Management, who gave tips

on how students can use websites and technology to market them-

selves as financial planners, and Mark Germain of Beacon Wealth

Management, who candidly revealed common mistakes made by

new and veteran professionals in the field. Ciccone graduated sum-

ma cum laude this year and was hired by Pinnacle Benefits Group.

Scheibner also arranged a summer mentor program through

which professionals volunteer to help students prepare for the Certi-

fied Financial Planning exam. The idea was well received by profes-

sionals, and also led to many internship opportunities for William

Paterson’s financial planning students.

Scheibner was one of four William Paterson students who par-

ticipated in the Financial Planning Conference in Anaheim, Ca. last

year. William Paterson was one of the few schools selected to have

its students serve as volunteers at the conference. They were given

a free booth, which they used to showcase the University’s financial

planning program, generating more attention and recognition for

William Paterson among top industry professionals.

“We’re very proud of Nick and what he has accomplished,”

says Luke Dean, academic coordinator of the Financial Planning

Program. “He has helped our students become professionals and he

has brought a lot of visibility to William Paterson University and its

financial planning program.”

Scheibner enjoys the personal aspect of financial planning. His

dream job would be to work for a fee-only wealth management

firm where he can meet with clients and work in their best interest.

This past summer he interned at that type of firm, the Baron Finan-

cial Group in Fair Lawn, where he now works four days a week.

Financial Planning continued from page 1

Political science professor Christine Kelly (left) plans Youth

Vote 2K10 with Lizbeth Davies ’10 (second from left);

and students David Rogers, Sebastien Jean-

Baptiste, and Dominick Brown

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7

Students Can Find Their Perfect Match Online Using RoomBug, a Facebook ApplicationAs an incoming freshman, Catie Matteucci had the typical con-

cerns about who would be her roommate when an email arrived

from the University inviting her to try a new application that

would allow her to find and select her own roommate online.

William Paterson became the first university in New Jersey

this summer to use RoomBug, a password-protected network that

allows students to select their own roommates online using the

Facebook platform.

“It’s cool,” says Matteucci, who specified that she wanted

a roommate who is neat, academically focused, and willing to

take turns helping each other with homework and cleaning their

room. That’s how she found fellow freshman Becky Wance, who

noticed that Catie’s preferences closely matched her own. Once

the pair started corresponding via Facebook, they discovered

that they had a lot more in common. Both are education majors,

honor students, like performing in plays, love everything Disney-

related, and even share a penchant for rainy weather.

“The advantage of using RoomBug is that it allows students

to find roommates using Facebook, a social network that nearly

all students are already comfortable using,” says Patricia White-

man, associate director, residence life.

“RoomBug is a controlled, secure network that requires a

password,” she explains. Once students have paid their deposit

and have a contract for housing, they are given an access code

that permits them to participate.

RoomBug users can browse through Facebook profiles of po-

tential roommates, finding common friends, and searching for us-

ers with shared interests such as favorite books and movies. Users

are able to interact with each other via Facebook in a variety of

ways, including direct messaging, in order to get a better sense of

a potential roommate. Facebook privacy settings allow students

to filter how much information about themselves they want to

reveal to others.

“Most of the students are comfortable with it and love it as a

way to evaluate potential roommates,” says Whiteman. The real

test of the program will come in February 2011, when current

students will be using the RoomBug application and have four

weeks to search for prospective roommates for the fall semester.

“We plan to supplement the program with roommate matching

parties, so that current students can meet each other in person.”

When students select their own roommates, they take more

responsibility for the decision, work out any differences, and are

more likely to remain roommates throughout the first year, adds

Whiteman.

“It’s awesome,” says Becky Wance, Matteucci’s roommate,

describing her own success with the RoomBug application. Becky

and Catie are now watching Disney movies together, inviting

friends over, and having sing-a-longs. “We’ve become really good

friends,” she adds.

This year, nearly 50 percent of all incoming freshmen self-

selected their roommates through connections they made

themselves or through visits to campus at events like Admit-

ted Students Day, the Scholarship Luncheon, Orientation, and

the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program, according to

Whiteman. “We thought it would be good to include another

way for students to self-select their roommates, and thus far it

appears to be working.”

Roommates Catie Matteucci (left) and Becky Wance

8

New Sculptures Grace Campus

For twenty years, William Paterson Uni-versity has housed a significant collection

of outdoor sculpture, providing the entire campus community with a rare opportunity

to interact with artwork on a daily basis in a setting outside a gallery or museum.

In the past year, three new sculptures have been added to the collection. Two are in Zanfino

Plaza on the walkway between the Cheng Library and Wayne Hall: “Tango” by California artist Bill

Barrett and “Odyssey ( A Journey)” by New York artist Maria Hall. The third, “City in a Mine” by

Caspar Henselmann of New York, is situated on the lawn opposite the 1600 Valley Road Building, and is the

first sculpture sited there.“The continued development of the campus has

opened new locations for the placement of outdoor sculp-ture,” says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn

Galleries, who created the Sculpture on Campus program in 1990. “These new works have allowed us to integrate art throughout the campus that can stimulate discussion and discovery among our students, faculty, and the public.”

With twenty-two works, the University’s Sculpture on Campus program represents one of the largest collections of public sculpture in New Jersey. William Paterson is the only higher education institution in the state with a formal program dedicated to placing public sculpture.

Einreinhofer encourages members of the campus to stop by the Ben Shahn Galleries for a self-guided booklet that provides a map of the collection, as well as information on each sculp-ture, including a biography of the artist and an artist’s statement about the work. “Contemporary sculpture reflects the culture we live in, and because public sculpture is large-scale, it is con-frontational by nature,” she continues. “Ultimately, the question is how sculpture addresses us as human beings, and challenges our thoughts and feelings. This is rewarding for all of us.”

Maria Hall’s abstract steel sculpture “Odyssey (A Journey)” deals with the “relationships of form and space,” says the artist

“Tango” a nine-foot-tall work by Bill Barrett “challenges gravity as its forms dance in an upward and outward movement,” says Einreinhofer. The sculpture was donated to the University by Dr. Jay Hyman

Caspar Henselman’s “City in a Mine,” is the artist’s second sculpture located on the campus. “Most of my work has a scientific connotation,” he says, and reflects “an analogy to the structural order found in biological organisms”

wpperspectives