EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 31,1995

NEWS ADVISORY
Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Ms. Michele Ridge, will be on the Edinboro University
campus on Monday, April 3, to deliver the keynote address at the kick-off luncheon for Literacy
Awareness Week.
Mrs. Ridge is expected to speak at 1 p.m. The luncheon is in Van Houten Dining Hall’s
University Club. Media coverage is invited.
Complete details on the week of events were included in our March 29 news release,
“Edinboro Hosts 3rd Annual Literacy Awareness Week.”
-30-

WAR

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 29, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO HOSTS 3RD ANNUAL LITERACY AWARENESS WEEK
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will host its third annual Literacy Awareness
Week, April 3-8. The event is sponsored by the University’s Institute for Literacy in the Center
for Excellence in Teaching.
This year’s event will feature a special kick-off luncheon, book giveaways, daily
presentations by experts in the field, adult outreach programs at local extended care facilities,
films, and displays at several campus locations.
Keynote speaker at the by-invitation kick-off luncheon at noon on April 3 will be
Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Mrs. Michele Ridge. Long a champion of programs to combat
illiteracy, Mrs. Ridge will speak on literacy in Pennsylvania. Monday’s activities continue with
a book giveaway in Edinboro’s University Center from 2 to 5 p.m. A second book giveaway
will be held on Tuesday, April 4, again from 2 to 5 p.m. in the University Center.
Tuesday’s events begin with a special group activity called “An Expression of Literacy,”
which will feature chalk drawings by students at the Miller Research Learning Center assisted
by volunteer University students and faculty.
The first of four, hour-long “Adult Outreach” programs wiU also begin on Tuesday.
Edinboro faculty, staff and students will travel to Edinboro Manor Tuesday and Wednesday and
later in the week to the Cambridge Springs Presbyterian Home and Springs Manor so that
senior citizens can be included in efforts to create community awareness of the importance of
literacy.
-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO HOSTS LITERACY AWARENESS WEEK, Continued

Page 2

Tuesday’s activities will conclude with a presentation by Mrs. Barbara Ekey titled, “Let
Your Imagination Take Flight,” in Room 119, Doucette Hall, 7-8:30 p.m. Ekey is a freelance
newspaper and magazine writer and has recently published the motivational children’s book
Catsup and Keys to Success.
On Wednesday, April 5, Linda Mukina of Edinboro University’s health and physical
education department will present “Movement Activities with Literacy Themes” at 9 a.m. in
Crawford Gymnasium. Also taking place on Wednesday will be the second Adult Outreach visit
to Edinboro Manor.
On Thursday, April 6, guest speaker Dr. Allan Quigley, a professor at Penn StateMonroeville who has published many articles on the topic of literacy, will present “Literacy in
the Time of Cynicism.” Quigley, who was recently named Pennsylvania’s 1995 Outstanding
Adult Educator, bases the presentation on his article in the February 1995 issue of What’s the
Buzz?, a professional journal for adult education.
Friday’s activities include afternoon Adult Outreach visits to the Cambridge Springs
Presbyterian Home (1:30-2:30) and to Springs Manor (3:30-4:30), both located in Cambridge
Springs.
Featured throughout the week will be two special displays, “Life Long Literacy” in
Butterfield Hall, and “Literacy Around the World” in the University Center, as well as a book
sale in the Campus Bookstore with reduced prices on both fiction and non-fiction volumes. In
addition, WFSE-FM campus radio will broadcast promotional spots during the week, and will
announce giveaways to students who correctly answer literacy-related questions.
Literacy Awareness week concludes on Saturday, April 8, with the showing of Stanley
and Iris, the critically-acclaimed film on adult illiteracy starring Robert DeNiro and Jane
Fonda.
Dr. Dawn Snodgrass, chairperson of Edinboro University’s Institute for Literacy and
coordinator of Literacy Awareness Week, said that the purpose of the week’s activities is to
stress the importance of literacy.
“Literacy Awareness Week provides programming for a wide variety of people from
young children to senior citizens, and is designed to give people of all ages a chance to be
involved in something educational that is also fiin and exciting,” Snodgrass said.
“Our main goal is not just to make people aware that illiteracy is a national problem of
crisis proportion, but that the problem is not insurmountable,” said Snodgrass. “Hopefully we
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EDINBORO HOSTS LITERACY AWARENESS WEEK, Continued

Page 3

will motivate people who have reading and writing difficulties to become more literate and
experience the enjoyment in life that the written word can give. We think that Literacy
Awareness Week has something for everyone to enjoy.”
Edinboro University’s Institute for Literacy and the Center for Excellence in Teaching
were created by President Foster F. Diebold in 1992 to shape Edinboro’s future in teacher
education for the 21st century.
-30WARibja

Mr. Frank A. Calderone (right), a project manager at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania, has been certified by the State System of Higher Education to manage
and administer design, repair, renovation and maintenance contracts up to Level EH, the
highest level of contracting authority delegated to the 14 state-owned universities by the
State System’s Board of Governors. Presenting the certification is Mr. Richard E.
Morley (left), Edinboro University’s vice president for financial operations and
administration.

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 27, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WIN PSA COMPETITION
For the third year in a row, students from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania were
accorded first-place honors in the Northwest Regional Highway Safety Network’s public service
announcement competition.
The Best of Show award was presented to Eric Anderson (Somers, CN), Joe Herron
(Greensburg), and Matt Straffm (Monroeville) for their production of “Playground.”
Other Edinboro students receiving recognition were: A1 Bass (Durham, NC), Todd
Henne (Louisville, OH), and Jody Dickerson (McKees Rocks) for their production of “In
Control”; Mark Byham (Lake City), Jeff Cunningham (Erie), Stephanie Schroeder (Erie), and
Matt Cohen (Pittsburgh) for “Take It Away”; and Ken Conklin (Wanaque, NJ), Jamie Murphy
(Oakdale), and Ron Postreich (Glenshaw) for “Can End a Life.”
The students were awarded gifts and a certificate, and the University was presented with
a permanent plaque.
-30PICTURED (left to right): Dr. John Fleischauer, Edinboro’s Provost and Vice President for
Academic Affairs; Ms. Mary Loncharic, regional coordinator for the Northwest Regional
Highway Safety Network; and students Matt Straffm, Joe Herron, and Eric Anderson.
psl

A member of the State System of Higher Education

March 27, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO GRAD IS FLIGHT NURSE, CO-FOUNDER
OF NEW HAMPSHIRE MEDICAL HELICOPTER PROGRAM
From the time he was a young boy, Wilson Matthews knew he wanted to be a flight
nurse. Today he is not only a flight nurse for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Air Response Team
(DHART) in New Hampshire, he is also a co-founder of the program.
Matthews has been around emergency crews all of his life. His father was a firefighter
and both of his parents were paramedics in Cuddy, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh. “I
grew up around it,” said Matthews. “Fve always liked the excitement and watching the
helicopters flying in and out.”
After graduating from South Fayette High School in 1985, he enrolled at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania to study nursing and play soccer. Even then, he was sharply focused
on what he wanted to become.
“I can remember my first day of college in Scranton Hall. I put a photo of the Life
Flight helicopter from Allegheny General Hospital in front of me on the desk. I put it there to
remind me of what I wanted to be.”
As an undergraduate he managed to do an informal externship with the Life Flight crew
at Allegheny General. He couldn’t fly with them but the flight nurse let him spend time with the
crew. Following graduation from Edinboro in 1990, he landed a job at the hospital for a year in
the cardio-thoracic ICU, working with immediate post open-heart surgical patients.
“I was trying to get all the experience I could,” said Matthews. “It takes a minimum of
three years of critical care experience to qualify for flight nurse status.”
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EDINBORO GRAD IS FLIGHT NURSE, Continued

Page 2

In addition, flight nurse candidates must become certified in a number of nursing
specialties including pediatric, neonatal, cardiac and trauma. A year ago he passed the certified
emergency nurse exam, and is now known as Wilson Matthews, RN, BSN, CEN.
Before creating the DHART program, Matthews worked in the emergency shock trauma
unit of the University Medical Center in Stony Brook, New York. There he got his first taste of
flight nurse experience when he accompanied the county police helicopter on medevac
missions.
Matthews took the job at Dartmouth-Hitchcock not only to fulfill his life-long dream,
but also to be a co-creator of a new program. He was hired along with five other full-time flight
nurses to get the program off the ground July 1, 1994. The DHART team also has four pilots
and six full-time paramedics and is on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.
“I love my job,” he said. “I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. The best part of my
job is finally doing it. I’ve been chasing it for so long, there were moments when I thought I
was never going to make it.”
DHART serves Vermont, New Hampshire, and part of New York and Massachusetts. Its
northern most destination is the hospital in Newport, Vermont, where the helicopter actually
enters Canadian airspace as it turns to land at the hospital. One of Matthews’ longest missions
was to transport a child from Bulington, Vermont, to Boston.
Approximately 80 percent of DHART’s calls are to other hospitals to transport patients.
The other 20 percent are directly to the scene of accidents. The helicopter is an Italian-made
Agusta 109 C-Max, the fastest medical helicopter made, with a cruising speed of 180 m.p.h.
The need for the DHART program was met with some skepticism at first, but its critics
are slowly becoming some of its biggest supporters. Where once outlying hospitals were
concerned about losing patients to Dartmouth-Hitchcock and other larger hospitals, they are
now building landing pads to accommodate the helicopter.
“In the past we might have landed in a football field three miles from the sending
hospital, been met by an ambulance, driven to the hospital, gotten the patient and driven back to
the helicopter. Hospitals with landing pads are saving us and their patients a lot of time.”
DHART expects to fly 300-400 missions the first year and slowly grow to nearly 600 annually.
Matthews recognizes that there are risks involved in his work, but he doesn’t dwell on
it. One of the advantages of the DHART program is the system of shared governance. The
flight crew participates in the program’s management and sets their own standards for safety.
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EDINBORO GRAD IS FLIGHT NURSE, Continued

Page 3

For example, they require themselves to always wear high leather boots, helmets, and Nomex
flame-resistant flight suits. The program director is a nationally-recognized expert on
emergency care. Susan Budassi Sheehy, RN, MSN, CEN, is the president of the National
Emergency Nurses Association.
Matthews said there is more to his job than jumping into a helicopter to save people’s
lives. There are a lot of community relations responsibilities ranging from conducting ground
safety classes for hospital and emergency staff to making public appearances to taking calls
from the media and the public. He spends one day a week in the office taking care of the
paperwork involved with shared administration. “We are not employed by DHART, we are a
part of DHART.”
Each nurse is also responsible for patient follow-up. They check on their patients and
correspond with their physicians, letting them know what happened to their patients and how
they are doing.
In addition to his DHART job, Matthews is also a 2nd Lt. in the Army Reserves. He is
part of the 356th Field Hospital unit based in Rocky Point, New York, serving as an ICU nurse
in a field unit.
-30BKP:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
William A. Reed, Jr.
Assistant Vice President for Public Information
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2956

March 24,1995
MEDIA ADVISORY:
ENGLISH TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT AT EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
U.S. Rep. Phil English (R-21st Dist.) will hold a news conference on the Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania campus on Saturday, March 25, to announce a bill he will introduce
in the first session of the 104th Congress to assist state tuition savings plans like Pennsylvania’s
Tuition Account Program (TAP).
The news conference is scheduled for 12:30 to 1 p.m. this Saturday in the Reeder Lecture
Hall, located on the ground floor of Reeder Hall (Edinboro University’s main administration
building, on Meadville Street in the Borough of Edinboro).
The legislation English proposes will amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by
exempting from gross income the earnings on tuition credits of individuals participating in state
pre-paid tuition programs.
English, who is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, says his bill will
encourage participation in state programs by eliminating the capital gains tax participants incur
when tuition credits are used.
The bill will also establish a consistent definition for qualified state pre-paid tuition
programs, as well as criteria for use of credits and for refunds.
Media coverage is invited.
-30WAR:psl

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 23, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MURDZAK JOINS STAFF AT EDINBORO UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Karen Murdzak, a native of Mercer, has recently been appointed to the position of
Student Telecommunications Services Coordinator at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She
will be in charge of coordinating student telephone services and equipment at the University.
Murdzak obtained her bachelor of science degree in secondary education and
mathematics from Edinboro University. She comes to Edinboro University after working with
GTE for 15 years where she served as project coordinator and 9-1-1 coordinator.
She and her husband, Ed, live in Edinboro with their children, Dana and Corey.
-30JMC:bja
T,

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 22,1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY TO PRESENT THE RAINMAKER
On Tuesday, April 4, the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Concert and Lecture
Series will present the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in a production of The Rainmaker by
N. Richard Nash. The performance is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium on the
Edinboro campus.
First produced in 1953, The Rainmaker has become one of America’s most widely
performed plays and a favorite among theater-goers.
The appearance of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre at Edinboro is part of their 12-week
tour of the United States. Featuring a cast of one woman and six men, the production will be
directed by Cliff Fannin Baker, the company’s founding artistic director.
Set in a time of severe drought in the American West, The Rainmaker tells the story of a
plain woman, Lizzie Cuiry, who faces life as a spinster. Her father and two brothers desperately
try to find her a husband. Suddenly Bill Starbuck, a flamboyant conman appears and offers to
make it rain for $100. When he works his magic on the heavens, the family and on the defiant
Lizzie, the result is “an awakening to romance in the heart,” “an uproarious comedy,” “a hit you
must see.”
Tickets are available by calling the Edinboro University Office of Cultural Affairs at
814-732-2518 weekdays. Prices are $5 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and students.
-30-

psl

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 21, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CATHLENE CRISS AWARDED EDINBORO PRESIDENT’S SCHOLARSHIP
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania President Foster F. Diebold has announced that
Cathlene Criss, a senior secondary education/mathematics major from Bethel Park, Pa., is the
1994-95 recipient of the President’s Scholarship for the study of ethics and values education.
Established during the 1993-94 academic year, the President’s Scholarship is presented
annually to a junior or senior education major with a particular interest in ethics and values.
Criss is the second Edinboro University student to receive the award.
Applicants must have an academic history of selecting coursework in ethics and values
education, and have maintained an overall 3.4 grade point average. Evidence of on-campus and
community volunteerism must also be submitted, along with a brief essay in which the
applicant states why he or she should be considered favorably for the scholarship award.
Criss told in her essay of her most rewarding involvement in an aspect of ethics and
values in education. While a counselor at a sports day camp in Cincinnati last summer, the fouryear Edinboro varsity basketball player implemented a new program for children with physical
and mental disabilities and related attention disorders.
“Many of the children came from single parent homes or had parents who were
unemployed,” said Criss. “They lacked discipline and respect for others.”
During the camp, Criss taught them self-control and conduct, as well as the rules of each
sport.
“I worked with all of the campers and by the end of the summer they learned tolerance
and respect for each other,” Criss said. “I felt that I had contributed to their moral and ethical
development, and I’ve been invited back to the camp next summer to continue my work.”
-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

CRISS AWARDED PRESIDENT’S SCHOLARSfflP, Continued

Page 2

Criss has also been a peer math tutor and a volunteer tutor in Edinboro University’s
Math Lab. She is a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the honor society in education, and has served
two years on the steering committee of the University’s Literacy Institute. She also holds
membership in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and has been a coach and counselor for two
years in Edinboro’s summer basketball camp.
The idea for the President’s Scholarship originated in the Institute for Ethics and Values
Education, one of the four institutes formed in 1992 under the aegis of Edinboro University’s
Center for Excellence in Teaching. The concept had the strong support of Diebold, who is
known nationally for his research, writings and lectures on ethical practices in higher education.
Funding for the monetary awards was made possible by private donations from
Pittsburgh business executive Frank Jakovac, a 1973 Edinboro graduate, who serves on the
Board of Directors of the Edinboro University Alumni Association.
-30WAR:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 20, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO LOGO DESIGNER HAS A PASSION FOR BASKETBALL AND ART
It’s easy to see the piper at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. No, not one of the
bagpipers attending the summer music camp or marching in the Homecoming parade. The one
who appears on virtually every publication, flyer, notepad or advertisement put out by the
University. Since the early 1990s the black and white - sometimes red and white - bagpipe­
playing, tartan-wearing piper has been the official, and highly distinctive, logo of Edinboro
University.
The man who created the logo for the University, Jim Prokell, is an Edinboro graduate
and was a star basketball player for the Fighting Scots from 1968-1972. To understand Prokell
and the logo, one must appreciate his love for basketball and art.
Prokell grew up in Pittsburgh nurturing a passion for basketball. He spent his summers
touring the asphalt courts of Pittsburgh’s inner-city neighborhoods - Homewood, Grafton,
Center Avenue, and the North Side. He became one of the city’s best players while attending a
Catholic high school. Star basketball players usually attract the attention of college coaches.
But because Prokell was not interested in becoming a priest, his high school was not eager to
send his highlight reels to non-Catholic colleges.
Nevertheless, his skill on the city’s playgrounds caught the eye of Ron Weaver, a senior
playing for then-Edinboro basketball coach Jim McDonald. It was Weaver who told McDonald
about Prokell. When McDonald, who recently retired as Edinboro’s athletic director, saw him
play in the summer of 1968, the school’s basketball scholarships had already been given out,
but Prokell managed to scrape up enough money to enroll and eventually qualify for a
scholarship.
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A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO LOGO DESIGNER, Continued

Page 2

“I think the thing that impressed McDonald,” said Prokell, “was that I could jam the ball
even though I was only 6 feet tall.”
He came to Edinboro because it offered him the two things he wanted most: an
opportunity to play basketball, and an outstanding art program.
Prokell made the freshman team and became the squad’s sixth man - the first player off
the bench. That team was a good one, losing only one game all year.
Between his freshman and sophomore years - the summer of 1969 - Prokell had doubts
about returning to Edinboro. Both the freshman and varsity squads were loaded with great
talent. It would be a struggle to make the team and retain his scholarship. He considered an
offer from Pratt Institute, but all of his credits would not transfer. Prokell knew the only way he
could remain in school was with a basketball scholarship at Edinboro. “I had to come back and
play.”
He stayed in Pittsburgh that summer, working with the ground crew at Three Rivers ,
Stadium during the day and playing basketball in the evenings.
He returned to campus early that fall to get a head start on practice. Much to his
surprise, many of the players who were expected to return didn’t, and Prokell made the most of
his opportunity. Not only did he make the team, he became a three-year starter, played his way
into Edinboro’s record books, and helped the team to three consecutive trips to the NAIA
playoffs.
Those teams were highlighted by two players, Prokell and Fred Riley. Although Prokell
was one of the shorter players on the team, he played low, with his back to the basket while
Riley played outside. During their careers Riley scored 1,279 points, and Prokell had 1,196
with 593 rebounds. Prokell's outstanding career still stands in Edinboro’s basketball record
books. He is 10th on the all-time scoring list and tied for fifth in career scoring average. Twice
he was named to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference first team.
On the court Riley and Prokell were a dream team; off the court they were like night
and day. “We both wanted to win, we both had a vision of a national championship,” said
Prokell. “We complemented one another and took the pressure off each other. We were friends,
but we had opposite approaches to life. Fred wore wing tips; I wore boots. Fred was focused on
basketball; I was intent on school and becoming an artist or illustrator. I was into peace, love
and good vibrations.”

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EDINBORO LOGO DESIGNER, Continued

Page 3

After his last collegiate game, Prokell forgot about basketball and concentrated on
student teaching. One day, while listening to blues records in his apartment, someone from the
athletic office came by to tell him he had been drafted in the 11th round by the Buffalo Braves
of the National Basketball Association.
Because the idea of playing in the NBA was so far-fetched, Prokell wasn’t even going to
go to rookie camp. But an art instructor convinced him to go for the experience, if nothing else.
One event from that three-day camp stands out in his memory as a reminder of just how out of
place he really was in the NBA. The Braves’ coach was Jack Ramsey, and big Bob McAdoo, a
6’10” scoring and rebounding machine, was their number-one rookie. Ramsey had the players
running three-man fast breaks with Prokell in the unaccustomed position of playing point guard.
On one break he brought the ball up the center of the court with a player on each wing. Waiting
for Prokell in the middle was McAdoo. Inside the top of the key, Prokell stopped and faked a
pass to one side which caused McAdoo to rock back on his heels. Prokell pulled up and
launched what was intended to be a high-arcing shot over the defender. McAdoo quickly
recovered, stepped forward and blocked the shot right back to Prokell. “I looked at him, told
him it was the best play I had ever seen and handed the ball to him,” he said. “Ramsey told me
to run laps.”
With his basketball career over, Prokell got on with his real calling in life.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to teach, but the principal at General McLane’s Parker Middle
School offered me a one-year position, filling in for a teacher on leave.”
Prokell’s real dream was to go to Boston to make his fortune as a portrait artist. He did
that for a few months until he discovered Bostonians don’t take outsiders in easily. He nearly
starved.
In the summer of 1973 he returned to Pennsylvania for his brother’s wedding. There he
met someone who offered him a teaching job at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He accepted and
has been in the Steel City ever since. After two years at the Art Institute he went into business
for himself - Jim Prokell Studios. He also taught at Pitt for 11 years in the evenings.
Prokell’s business became one of the largest and most respected in the Pittsburgh area.
Its client list includes such fortune 100 companies as PNC, PPG and Westinghouse. Prokell’s
illustrations have appeared all over the country, winning hundreds of graphic awards. He
continues to retain numerous executive and family portrait commissions.

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EDINBORO LOGO DESIGNER, Continued

Page 4

At one time he had 15 employees, but computers revolutionized the industry, allowing
him to do almost all of the design work himself, with the rest being brokered out. Now he is his
only employee.
“By myself I generate 50 percent of the business I had when I had 15 people. The work
is really no different than before. I can design and create camera ready art in one fell swoop. I
am able to acquire work, interact with all clients, and manage the process and all the details.”
Prokell became the creator of the piper almost by accident. He remained close to the
University following graduation and kept in touch with David O’Dessa, a former Edinboro
coach who had become vice president for administration and institutional advancement. Around
1990, Prokell asked O’Dessa if there was something he could do for the University. Before
long, Prokell found himself working with the school’s Public Relations Office to design a new
logo.
After considerable research on Edinboro’s Scottish heritage, Prokell produced a layout
featuring the piper. “My intent was to create something that would reproduce well, be
distinctive, and work well any way it was used.”
The University enthusiastically accepted the logo, making virtually no changes to
Prokell’s original design. Today, it is among the most recognizable of all college logos and
certainly among the most distinctive trademarks at any of the 14 State System of Higher
Education universities.
Still, Prokell does not consider the piper his greatest work. That honor belongs to his
seven-year-old son, Maxfield Jordan Prokell. “He’s clearly the best thing I’ve ever created,”
said the proud father.
The young Prokell has many of the same skills his father possesses - a strong visual
orientation, a love of drawing and painting, and he has already accumulated several medals in
soccer and basketball. Perhaps he will follow in his father’s footsteps and become an award­
winning graphic designer. Or just maybe, make it to the NBA.
-30BKP:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 17, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO, CLARION PLAN INTERACTIVE COURSES FOR RURAL NURSES
Nurses and other health care professionals in Warren and Forest counties will soon be
able to take continuing education courses from Edinboro and Clarion Universities of
Pennsylvania thanks to an innovative program that will use two-way interactive video between
sites in Edinboro, Clarion and Warren.
The pilot program is funded by a $15,000 grant from the State System of Higher
Education to Edinboro and Clarion in conjunction with the Warren/Forest Higher Education
Council. Its purpose is to demonstrate the ability for SSHE institutions to deliver distance
education to the rural community as well as for the institutions to gain exposure and experience
with distance learning technology and techniques.
The program will include up to ten different topics taught by faculty from Edinboro and
Clarion universities via interactive video to students in a classroom at a site to be determined by
the Warren/Forest Higher Education Council facility. Half of the sessions will be delivered from
Clarion and the other half from Edinboro.
This type of program became possible with the advent of technology that allows fullmotion, interactive video signals to be sent across telephone lines. Faculty and students in
separate locations will be able to see and hear each other live.
Health care professionals who could benefit from the program would be among the
nearly 300 nurses at Warren General Hospital and the 200 nurses at Warren State Hospital.
Forest County, with only 5,000 year-round residents, has the largest percentage of elderly of
any county in Pennsylvania, and has been identified as a “medically underserved” area.
-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO, CLARION COURSES FOR RURAL NURSES, Continued

Page 2

Sessions are being developed by Dr. Jeanne Weber and Pam Lawrence of the nursing
departments at Edinboro and Clarion universities, respectively. They are meeting with the
professional nursing community in Warren to produce topics that will be of greatest interest to
them. Weber and Lawrence are also working with the Pennsylvania Nurses Association to
secure the organization’s continuing education credit. Some of the topics being developed
include EKG interpretation, feeding techniques of high-risk infants, and working with volatile
mentally ill patients.
Because this a new program using new technology, faculty and staff at both schools and
personnel from the Warren/Forest Higher Education Council will require training in the use of
the equipment. The program is seen not only as a benefit to health care workers in the
Warren/Forest area, but also as a professional development opportunity for faculty who will
learn how to use interactive video technologies. The interactive aspect is especially important
because it allows the student to ask questions and explore ideas with the instructor.
The idea for the program began nearly a decade ago with Weber, who was trying to
think of new ways of providing continuing education programs for rural nurses. “At that time,
we were looking at using video tapes in conjunction with workbooks,” said Weber. “Now we
have the technology to deliver interactive programs to people’s living rooms. The time has
come for distance education, especially in large rural states like Pennsylvania.”
Weber said many nurses in rural areas are not able to keep up with the latest
developments in their profession without a great deal of travel. Distance education programs
like this one will enable them to maintain their training while staying in their local
communities. She sees further benefits eventually for faculty as well, who may some day be
able to take courses from leading nursing experts at other universities without leaving Edinboro.
-30BKP:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 16, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY HOSTS U. S. NATIONAL CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD
High school chemistry students in northwestern Pennsylvania will take part in the first
phase of the U. S. National Chemistry Olympiad, Saturday, March 25, at Edinboro University
of Pennsylvania.
The local event, which is administered by the Erie section of the American Chemical
Society (ACS), is a two-hour screening examination. Last year, 35 students from nine area high
schools participated in the first phase. Up to eight students will be selected to compete in the
second phase of the Olympiad, which will be held at Edinboro, Saturday, April 29.
More than 10,000 chemistry students nationwide take part in the qualifying screening
process every year. Of the estimated 1100 students who will go on to compete in the Olympiad,
20 will be chosen to participate in a study camp, which will be held in June at the U. S. Air
Force Academy. From those 20, four will represent the United States at the International
Chemistry Olympiad to be held this July in Beijing, China.
In last year’s competition in Oslo, Norway, the U. S. team came in third behind China
and the United Kingdom. China has won the event five years in a row.
The ACS created the Olympiad in 1984 to encourage high school students to achieve
excellence in chemistry. Other goals of the program are to recognize outstanding chemistry
students, their teachers and schools; foster the interest and influence of professional chemists in
the teaching of chemistry; and promote cross-cultural experiences.
-30BKPtbja

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EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

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Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 15, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST TO APPEAR AT EDINBORO UNIVERSITY APRIL 6
Internationally-known multi-media artist Peter d’Agostino will appear at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania, on Thursday, April 6, to show and discuss his work. He will
conduct an afternoon seminar on communications starting at 3:30 p.m. in room G-9, Doucette
Hall. A presentation and show of his work will start at 8:15 p.m. in room 119, Doucette Hall.
Both events are free and open to the public.
Peter d’Agostino’s work investigates the personal, cultural and technological systems of
signs, language and communications that permeate everyday life. In a sophisticated synthesis of
theory and art practice, d’Agostino applies semiotic, deconstructive and appropriative strategies
to his rigorous analyses and critiques of the structure, function and influence of broadcast
television. His works draw on a broad theater of discourses - linguistics, communications and
mass media theory, history, aesthetics, physics, architecture - as well as popular formats and
personal references. Through the language and techniques of communications and television, he
examines a media-driven consumer culture and its information systems.
In one of his earliest performance-based works, “The Walk Series,” d’Agostino
experiments with perceptions of landscape, time and point of view. In this piece, the artist uses
video to redefine the landscape in his own image. In his three part work, “Comings and
Goings,” he focuses on the complex infrastructure of urban mass transit systems, drawing
linguistic parallels to the visual image to investigate signs and their relation to structures of
communications. Designed as a video installation, “Proposal for CUBE” comments on the

-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

I

PETER d’AGOSTINO TO APPEAR AT EDINBORO, Continued

Page 2

dangers of “unchecked mass communications,” and the manipulation inherent in television. The
piece demonstrates that the two-way CUBE system is carefully controlled rather than
participatory.
Having worked in video since 1971, d’Agostino continues to explore increasingly
sophisticated technologies, including interactive videodisks. In complex, multi-levelled
interactive works, such as “Double You (and X,Y, Z),” the viewer controls the technology,
activating a labyrinthian multiplicity of associative meanings in a non-linear, open-ended text.
In this particular work, the primary subject is the acquisition of language while the underlying
structure is derived from physics. Through analogy and metaphor, d’Agostino parallels the
successive stages of learning language - cries at birth, first words and sentences, songs - with
the four elements that are believed to cause all physical interaction in the universe - light,
gravity, strong and weak forces.
“Quarks” is a rigorous analysis of how television functions. Structured in a series of
thirty-second intervals, three layers of information - sound, image, and written texts - are
ironically juxtaposed with TV patter. By isolating and recontextualizing TV sounds, d’Agostino
questions the meaning of what is seen and heard on television. In “Suburban Strategies,” the
architecture of suburbia - shopping malls, freeways, showrooms - is juxtaposed with television
sounds and visuals in this deconstruction of mass media manipulation and consumer culture.
The work presents television as a form of surveillance, where the act of watching and being
watched is a pervasive experience of daily life.
In “TeleTapes,” d’Agostino continues his critique and analysis of television’s influence
on everyday life and culture by exploring the content and time structure of broadcast TV.
Alternating news and commercial footage with his own staged events, d’Agostino examines the
viewer’s perception of reality versus TV reality, the pervasive cultural influence of TV
advertising, and the way that television manipulates and mythifies events. Through a fluid
visual and aural collage, “Transmissions” explores the history of 20th century communications,
and probes the cultural and personal implications of technology’s power to effect change.
Through a fusion of allegory, documentary, science and autobiography, d’Agostino creates a
trenchant, often poignant analysis of communications technology as both witness and catalyst to
history.
Peter d’Agostino was bom in 1945. He received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts,
New York, and an MA from San Francisco State University. He has been an artist-in-residence
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PETER d’AGOSTINO TO APPEAR AT EDINBORO, Continued

Page 3

at the Television Laboratory at WNET/Thirteen, a visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced
Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and visiting artist at the American
Academy in Rome. Currently a professor of communications at Temple University in
Philadelphia, d’Agostino has received several fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Arts, as well as grants from the Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund and the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts. His work has been broadcast widely and exhibited at the San Francisco
Museum of Modem Art; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Sao Paulo
Biennale, Brazil; as well as in solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modem Art, New York;
University Art Museum, Berkeley, California; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and
the Philadelphia Art Museum. In addition to his work in video, d’Agostino has written and
edited numerous articles and books on photography, video, language and semiotics, including
“Transmission: Theory and Practice for a New Television Aesthetic.”
Peter d’Agostino’s appearance is part of the Alternative Film Festival at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania and is funded with a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the
Arts.
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bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 15,1995
NEWS ADVISORY:

Dr. Robert Cavalier of Camegie-Mellon University will be at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania on Tuesday, March 21, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. to discuss how to redesign the
liberal arts classroom to include the use of Internet.
His lecture, which will take place in the Ross Hall Demo Room, is intended for the entire
academic community, as well as those in liberal arts.
His visit is sponsored by the Year of the Internet grant.
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psl

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

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Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 14, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

AUDREY PARKS SHABBAS TO CONDUCT ISLAM TEACHING WORKSHOP
Audrey Parks Shabbas, one of the nation’s leading experts in teaching about Islam, will
conduct a day-long workshop on Wednesday, March 22, at Edinboro University of
Pennsylvania. Shabbas, who has been a teacher since 1965, works for the Middle East Policy
Council in Washington.
In her 30 years as a teacher, Shabbas has taught and conducted workshops around the
world and participated in many United Nations-sponsored events. In 1981 she was invited to
address a conference in North Africa on the International Year of the Disabled Person. In 1983
she went to Geneva, Switzerland, to participate in the International Conference on the Question
of Palestine. A year later she was invited by the U.N. to chair a panel and address the issue of
Women and the Question of Palestine.
Her workshop at Edinboro will provide an accurate view of mainstream Islam and is
intended primarily for teachers of social studies, religion and history.
Shabbas was executive director for two years of Najda: Women Concerned About the
Middle East. In 1990 she founded the Arab World and Islamic Resources and Schools Services,
a non-profit organization for improving education about the Arab world and Islam in grades
K-12.
Shabbas is a native of Berkeley, California, and earned a bachelor’s degree in political
science and international relations from the University of California at Berkeley in 1963. She
also studied American government and social science at San Francisco State University, and
earned her teaching certification from there in 1965.
-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

AUDREY PARKS SHABBAS TO CONDUCT WORKSHOP, Continued

Page 2

In 1978, along with two other women, Shabbas formed an educational consulting firm,
Arab World Consultants. For more than two years they worked to create a set of multi-media
materials for elementary and secondary classrooms. The materials are used throughout the U.S.
and in English language schools abroad and are available through UNICEF in New York, and
UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
In 1990 Shabbas was appointed to a national task force to create equity and multi-ethnic
educational guidelines for the United States. In 1992 the University of Pennsylvania honored
her with the Janet Lee Stevens Award for her contributions to Arab-American understanding.
For further information on the workshop, call Edinboro University’s Institute for
Research and Community Services at 814-732-2762.
-30BKP:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-27A5 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 14, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY OBSERVES WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania is observing Women’s History Month with a series
of programs sponsored by its Intercultural Relations Office.
Minority Students United will present a discussion of Black Women in Antiquity on
Monday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the Miller Gym. The event will focus on women of authority
and matriarchies in ancient civilizations, primarily in Egypt. The students will make their
presentations wearing African attire.
The University’s History Club will present Women Who Kill, Thursday, March 23, at
7 p.m. in 100 Hendricks Hall. The lecture will explore the role of women as perpetrators rather
than victims.
Business and economics professor LaTanya Smith will lecture on Women and Economic
Development, Tuesday, March 28, at 7 p.m. in the University Center.
Two events are scheduled for Thursday, March 30. Campus Ministries will hold a brown
bag lunch on Women of the Bible, at noon in the University Club. The History Club will
present a panel discussion on Women and Sports at 7 p.m. in 100 Hendricks Hall.
Women’s History Month will conclude with a performance by the United Voices Choir
in a celebration of Women in the Arts, Friday, March 31, at 5 p.m. in the Miller School Gym.
For more information, contact the Office of Intercultural Relations, 732-2912.
-30BKP:bja

A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 13, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DR. MAUREEN McCLURE TO LECTURE AT EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
A former resident of Erie and graduate of Strong Vincent High School will be the
keynote speaker at the Society for Values in Higher Education (SVHE) regional meeting at
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, March 31-April 1. Dr. Maureen McClure, from the
University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Administrative and Policy Studies, will lecture on
“The Changing Demands of a College Education in the Knowledge-Based Society.” She will
speak to a campus-wide convocation on Friday, March 31, at 2 p.m. in the University Center,
and again at noon on Saturday in Van Houten Dining Hall.
McClure teaches courses in education finance and strategic management to students
who are preparing to become administrators in school districts, higher education institutions and
in ministries of education internationally. She also serves as associate executive director of the
Tri-State Area School Studies Council, a regional consortium representing over 100 school
districts. She is currently the book editor for the Educational Administration Quarterly and is
past-president of the Fiscal Issues, Policy and Education Finance SIG at the American
Educational Research Association. Her research interests focus on strategic relationships
between education and regional development.
She has conducted policy and planning workshops with teachers, administrators and
elected officials from the United States, Asia, west Africa and western Europe. Many of these
workshops were designed for senior strategists in school districts and education ministries. She
is also associated with the Matthew W. Ridgeway Center for International Security Studies.

-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

DR. McCLURE LECTURES AT EDINBORO, Continued

Page 2

After graduating from Strong Vincent, McClure attended Allegheny College and the
University of Glasgow, earning a bachelor’s degree in English. Allegheny also awarded her a
master’s degree in secondary education. McClure earned three degrees from the University of
Rochester: an MBA in applied economics, an MS in educational administration, and a Ph.D. in
education.
-30BKP:cah

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 10, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO ADDRESS TO DISCUSS EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE
Dr. James J. McCartney, associate professor of philosophy at Villanova University, will
speak on the topics of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and refusing health care interventions on
Thursday, March 30, at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His address, which is sponsored
by the University’s technology and human values committee, will be held at 7:30 p.m. in 102
Cooper Hall.
In his lecture, McCartney will discuss these end-of-life issues and their far-reaching
ethical, economic, and public policy implications. He will attempt to distinguish between
refusing health care interventions and passive euthanasia and then show why active and passive
euthanasia as well as assisted suicide are all related to the same ethical considerations.
In addition to his position at Villanova, he is also ethics consultant for health systems in
Florida and New York and is a member of three institutional ethics committees and the National
Ethics Task Force of the Society for Critical Care Medicine.
Previously, he was director of the Bioethics Institute at St. Francis Hospital in Miami
Beach and was an associate professor of humanities at St. Thomas University and adjunct
professor of jurisprudence at its school of law. From 1980 to 1985 he was academic vice
president at St. Thomas.
He has been a faculty member at Georgetown University School of Medicine and a
researcher at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He received his
doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown and has graduate degrees in cell biology and
theology from the Catholic University of America and Washington Theological Union.
The public is invited to attend the lecture free of charge.
-30BKP:cah
A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 8,1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY PRESENTS THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
As part of a continuing program to bring live theater to local students and families,
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will present a performance of “No One Will Marry a
Princess With a Tree Growing Out of Her Head!” by the Theatre for Young Audiences. The
performances are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, March 30 and 31, at 8:15 p.m., and
Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2, at 4:00 p.m. in the University’s Center for Performing Arts.
With book and lyrics by Michael Brill, music and orchestrations by David Jackson, and
directed by Ro Willenbrink Blair, “Princess” was the first-place winner of Best Musical 1994-95
at the National Children’s Theatre Festival Playwriting Competition in Miami.
The cast will incorporate some sign language into the performance. Crystal Kupar (who
plays the East wind in the performance) is hearing impaired. She has been working with the cast,
Edinboro’s Office for Students with Disabilities, and Community Resources for Independence to
interpret some of the performances.
Michael Brill, playwright and lyricist, is an award-winning playwright, director and
actor. He has worked extensively in the area of children’s theater since the mid-1960s, and his
plays and music have been produced throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
He is the director of 78 professional production and has appeared as an actor with more than 100
theater companies in the U.S.
David Jackson, composer and orchestrator, has had his work performed on radio and
television in the form of advertising jingles for the past two decades. Trained at Kent State and
the Cleveland Institute of Music, Jackson has spent the last 13 years on the island of Manhattan
composing, arranging and scoring for records, industrial theater, cabaret, television, film and offBroadway. “Princess” is his second collaboration with Brill, the first being his chilling sound
sculpture and underscoring for “Bags.”
A member of the ^tS^f§ystem of Higher Education

THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES, continued

page!

Children - young and old alike - will enjoy this production of “No One Will Marry a
Princess With a Tree Growing Out of Her Head!” For additional information or reservations,
phone the Theatre for Young Audiences box office at 814-732-2242 between March 23 and
March 31. Persons with disabilities who need accommodations for this event should notify
Edinboro University’s Office for Students with Disabilities (814-732-2462) to make
arrangements.
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psl

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 8,1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY PRESENTS AN EVENING OF SCIENCE ACTIVITIES
On Monday, April 3, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will host its third annual
Evening of Science Activities in McComb Fieldhouse from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The evening will
showcase hands-on science activities for teachers from kindergarten through college. All of the
presentations were developed by Edinboro science and education majors.
More than 600 people participated in last year’s event, and this year should prove to be
even more successful. The program is sponsored by the Institute for Curriculum, Instruction and
Collaboration of the Edinboro University Center for Excellence in Teaching.
The cost, $3 for students and $6 for non-students, includes a summary book describing
each of the presentations. The public is invited to attend.
For additional information, contact Dr. Theresa Thewes in the chemistry department at
Edinboro University, 814-732-2516.
-30psl

A member of the State System of Higher Education

March 8, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SUSAN BAKER TREATING DISEASE THROUGH HYPNOTHERAPY
Susan Baker of Oil City is first and foremost a healer. She has been a registered nurse
since 1969, a certified nurse anesthetist since 1972, and later graduated from Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in that field.
Since 1990, however. Baker has entered a different realm of healing. She is a
hypnotherapist, combining traditional medicine with the holistic approach of alternative
medicine. She trained at the Greater New England Academy of Hypnosis and earned a
doctorate in clinical hypnosis from the American Institute of Hypnotherapy in 1993.
Baker is winding down her nurse anesthetist career at the Northwest Medical Center in
Oil City to devote herself full time to hypnotherapy. Today she is teaching licensed medical
practitioners a relatively new method of healing called Resilience Therapy. Created by Atlanta
psychiatrist Nicholas Demetry, resilience therapy draws upon our ability to fight back and
rebound from the most adverse human conditions and life traumas.
Resilience Therapy is used to treat several psychological/psychiatric conditions such as
depression, anxiety disorders, childhood traumas, and addiction conditions. It is useful for stress
reduction, psychological management of medical illness and pain, and marital and family
issues.
Practitioners of Resilience Therapy believe the first step is to heal residual ego wounds
and traumas, especially those received during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.
They believe it is important to access one’s inner feelings and to get in touch with one’s
emotional and physical selves.
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SUSAN BAKER TREATING DIS EASE, Continued

Page 2

She agrees with Hans Sclere, a leading researcher in stress, that all disease is caused by
stress. “We teach people how to manage stress in their lives,” said Baker.
Resilience Therapy is much more involved than spending a half-hour with a hypnotist
and becoming instantly cured. It is four, week-long group sessions called modules, spread over
a year. They teach specific techniques for inducing altered states of awareness and for detection
and clearing of blocked energy patterns.
“The purpose of the resilience process is to open us to the power of unconditional love
and elevate us to healthier states of psychological functioning,” said Baker.
She is also associated with Dr. William Bezmen of Smithtown, New York, in developing
Hypnosynergistic Therapy, a process very similar to Resilience Therapy, but directed
specifically for those in the nursing professions. Both therapies are based in large part on the
teachings of the Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung.
In addition to her therapeutic work. Baker is diligently promoting her career as a
profession. In February she addressed the National Convention of Hypnotherapists in
California. She is the president in Pennsylvania of the International College of Clinical
Hypnosis and is working with legislators in Harrisburg to regulate her profession. “There are no
laws in Pennsylvania regulating hypnosis,” said Baker. “Anyone can take a course and call
themselves a hypnotherapist. There is no test nor regulation for practicing hypnosis.”
She points out that health care is big business in America, and it’s not all doctors and
pills. A 1990 study by Harvard University showed that Americans spend $412 billion on
mainstream medicine and $380 billion on alternative medicine.
“We spend more money on health care than any other country,” said Baker.
Alternative medicine is not limited to the United States. Later this year, she will conduct
therapy sessions in Germany for two weeks, and she expects to travel to Brazil in September.
-30BKP:bja

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 7, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY NAMES JODY MOORADIAN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania President Foster F. Diebold has announced the
appointment of Ms. Jody E. Mooradian as Edinboro University’s athletic director. The
appointment was effective on February 17, 1995.
Mooradian came to Edinboro in September 1993 from an internship at UCLA. Initially
serving as associate athletic director, she was appointed by Diebold as interim athletic director
following the retirement of Edinboro’s long-time athletic director Jim McDonald.
Mooradian brings a unique background to her new, full-time position overseeing
Edinboro’s 16-sport athletic program.
“I became interested in athletics, because my father was the athletic director at the
University of New Hampshire while I was growing up,” said Mooradian. *T also played
intercollegiate basketball while I attended New Hampshire as an undergraduate.”
Last fall, the University of New Hampshire named its athletic field Mooradian Field after
Andrew Mooradian, her late father.
Mooradian’s educational background includes a juris doctorate from the Delaware Law
School, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Delaware, and a
bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire.
A former practicing attorney specializing in insurance defense litigation, she has since
focused on issues pertaining to NCAA rules and regulations compliance governing eligibility of
student-athletes and matters of gender equity in athletic programs.
-30WAR:psl
A member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 6, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO HOSTS VALUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will be the site of a regional conference to discuss
the social transformation that is quietly taking place worldwide. The Society for Values in
Higher Education (SVHE) will hold its Mid-Atlantic and Canadian Regional Meeting, March
31-April 1, to discuss transmitting values in a knowledge-based society.
Dr. Maureen McClure from the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Administrative
and Policy Studies will address the new economic order in which knowledge is the key
resource. Her lecture, “The Changing Demands of a College Education in the KnowledgeBased Society,” will be presented at noon on Saturday, April 1, in Van Houten Dining Hall.
In addition to McClure’s luncheon address to the SVHE conference, she will also speak
to a campus-wide convocation on Friday, March 31, at 2 p.m. in the University Center.
McClure’s address is based on “The Age of Social Transformation,” an article by Peter
Drucker in the November 1994 issue of Atlantic Monthly. Drucker contends that the age of the
industrial worker is over, and it is being replaced by the age of the knowledge worker. He
predicts that by the end of the century, as much as a third of the nation’s work force will consist
of knowledge workers.
The rise of the knowledge worker is creating a knowledge-based society that is putting
new demands on our institutions. “Education will become the center of the knowledge society,
and the school its key institution,” wrote Drucker. “Increasingly, an educated person will be
somebody who has learned how to learn, and who continues learning, especially by formal
education, throughout his or her lifetime.”
-moreA member of the State System of Higher Education

EDINBORO HOSTS SVHE CONFERENCE, Continued

Page 2

The meeting in Edinboro will present three additional topics for discussion: the liberal
arts curriculum as a vehicle for values education, teaching for the knowledge-based society, and
the ethical imperative in an increasingly technological society.
The SVHE conference is sponsored by Edinboro’s Institute for Ethics and Values
Education which is part of the Center of Excellence in Teaching. The Center and its Institutes
were created by President Foster F. Diebold to maximize the educational service, training, and
research strengths of the University’s teacher education programs.
The meeting is expected to attract educators, administrators and others with an interest
in values and education. Among those expected are the executive director of SVHE, Dr.
Kathleen McGrory from Georgetown University, and Constance Ramirez, acting dean of liberal
studies at Duquesne University.
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BKP:cah

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 2, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO GRADUATE SERVES AS GREEN BERET AND NURSE
Captain Bernard Cenney is the kind of person Uncle Sam calls upon in an emergency.
He is a member of the Army’s Green Beret special forces unit and has served his country from
Japan to Thailand. He has trained Royal Thai marines, parachuted with the Philippine military,
and served as a special agent in counterintelligence at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
It may be something of a surprise, then, to learn that Cenney is also a nurse. And he
became interested in nursing while on a special forces mission in Thailand. Today he is a
charge nurse on a 26-bed cardio-thoracic ward at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, caring primarily for
patients who have had coronary artery bypass grafts.
Cenney earned his nursing degree in 1993 through an innovative program at Edinboro
University of Pennsylvania. It is designed for people who already have a baccalaureate degree
in another field and who want to earn a nursing degree as quickly as possible. The program
lasts just one calendar year, with students taking courses all day long, five days a week, in three
full semesters.
“It has a heavy work load,” said Edinboro nursing professor Estell Hyde, “but it is a
good program and a highly successful one.”
Hyde is also a captain in the Army Reserves 332 General Hospital unit in Erie. She was
the one who commissioned Cenney as a captain when he graduated from Edinboro.
Cenney’s military career began as an ROTC student at Penn State where he studied
foreign service and international politics. Upon graduating in 1981 he was assigned to Ft.
Huachuca, Arizona, for the officer basic course, then received parachute training at the Ft.
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GRADUATE SERVES AS A GREEN BERET AND NURSE, Continued

Page 2

Banning, Georgia, airborne school. In January of 1982 he became the tactical command post
officer in charge for the 2nd Armored Division in Ft. Hood, Texas. A year later he joined the
Division’s 1-41 infantry battalion. From March to July of 1984 he attended the Green Beret
special forces qualification course in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
Cenney’s first assignment as a Green Beret was as a detachment commander in the 1st
Special Forces Group at Ft. Lewis, Washington. During his duty there he was assigned to
missions in Hawaii, Guam and Tinian.
In August of 1985, Cenney was named as a Special Forces “A” Team leader stationed in
Okinawa. Several of his missions took him to the Philippines where he instructed Philippine
troops in parachute training. He spent a year in Thailand teaching Thai special forces units and
ran a Jumpmaster school for the Royal Thai Marines in Sattahip, Thailand, and taught sniper
operations and combat patrolling in Sichon, Thailand, above the Malaysian border. He also
taught protection security and close quarters battle to Thai special forces who would later be
used to protect the King of Thailand in Chaingmai.
The role of special forces is more than that of military training and operations. It is to
help other countries take care of themselves. Part of Cenney’s mission was to provide medical
assistance to villagers in remote areas of Thailand. On one medical civic action program
Cenney’s unit treated more than 400 Thai villagers and monks, performing medical and dental
care. They also taught the Thai special forces how to perform such medical tasks as tooth
extractions, inoculations, venous cutdowns and tracheostomies. For his work, Cenney received
the Army’s Meritorious Service Medal.
It was while training the Thai special forces in the city of Udon that he met his wife,
Kongsri. They were married in Bangkok in January, 1987.
Cenney returned to Ft. Huachuca in July, 1988, for a military intelligence assignment.
Their daughter Anne was born there. A year later he was assigned as a special agent to Ft.
Meade, Maryland. Their son James was born at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. In the spring
of 1992 he attended the U.S. Navy Diving School at Little Creek Amphibious Base at Norfolk,
Virginia.
In August of that year he left active duty to enroll in Edinboro’s innovative nursing
program. During that time Cenney and his family lived in Erie where his wife took American
English and cultural classes.

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GRADUATE SERVES AS A GREEN BERET AND NURSE, Continued

Page 3

He returned to active duty with the Army in March of 1994. “I liad been assigned to
report to Hawaii for my first nursing duty,” said Cenney, “but my daughter developed aplastic
anemia in April. I got my orders changed to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, because it is the only
Army hospital with a bone marrow unit, in case Anne would need a transplant.”
Fortunately, Anne is doing well so far on medication and is attending kindergarten there.
If all goes well, Cenney will attend the Army's critical care nursing course, beginning in
May. He then hopes to be assigned to a Forward Support Team (FST), a medical team of two
critical care nurses, one nurse anesthesia officer, and a doctor who provide medical care to front
line troops. His dream is to be assigned to a special forces battalion FST - preferably on
Okinawa again. Eventually, he would like to earn a master’s degree in nursing, perhaps from
Edinboro.
In the meantime, Cenney and his family are enjoying their life at Ft. Sam Houston,
which is in the San Antonio area, in part because of the 2,000-member Thai community there.
Mrs. Cenney is an unofficial liaison to Thai military personnel who visit the base, as well as
Thai college students living in the area.
-30-

BKPxah

March 2,1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EDINBORO UNIVERSITY PRESENTS NOBEL LAUREATE BETTY WILLIAMS
On Saturday, March 25, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will host a lecture by
Nobel Laureate Betty Williams, director of the Global Children’s Study Center at Sam Houston
State University. Williams’ appearance at Edinboro was funded by a grant from the State System
of Higher Education through the Rural Education Access Program: “On Track.”
Williams has dedicated herself to giving voice to the world’s children. She clearly
outlines the dilemma we face: children are caught in the crossfire of war, poverty and unrest
with neither political nor economic clout and no means to influence events on their own behalf.
Her mission is to raise awareness of the urgent crisis, and it is for this commitment that she was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977.
Her activism began in 1976 when she witnessed senseless killing of innocent children in
her native Belfast, Ireland. Williams organized peace marches and rallies that spread throughout
Northern Ireland and Great Britain, evolving into an organization called “Community of Peace
People.” She has since traveled the world with those equally committed to her many
humanitarian missions, including distributing food in Ethiopia, delivering humanitarian aid in
Panama and Nicaragua, and traveling to Thailand and Geneva to call for the unconditional
release of 1991 Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest in
Burma.
Williams will speak at 10:00 a.m. in Butterfield 137 on the Edinboro campus. A question
and answer session will follow. The public is invited to attend free of charge.
-30-

psl

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY
OF

PENNSYLVANIA
Office of Public Information and Publications
Edinboro, PA 16444
(814) 732-2745 or 2929
Fax (814) 732-2621

March 2, 1995

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EDINBORO UNIVERSITY RECEIVES STATE AWARD
Edinboro University President Foster F. Diebold (right) accepts an award from the State
Employee Combined Appeal (SEGA) for Edinboro University’s “outstanding contribution and
dedication to the local campaign of the SEGA.”
Diebold accepted the award certificate, which was signed by the Governor of the
Commonwealth, on behalf of the University in a recent ceremony with (left to right) Janet
Dean, Edinboro’s assistant vice president for faculty relations and SECA campus coordinator,
and Joyce Izbicki and Linda Askins, Edinboro University’s loaned representatives to the United
Way of Erie County 1994 campaign.
Izbicki, Edinboro's loaned executive, and Askins, the University’s loaned labor leader,
were also awarded outstanding service plaques in a separate ceremony by Sr. Catherine
Manning, president and CEO of St. Vincent Health System and co-chair of the 1994 United
Way of Erie County Loaned Representative Program.
Edinboro University’s 1994 SECA goals were 280 donors and $30,000 in pledges. Both
goals were exceeded with 300 donors pledging more than $31,400, the second highest amount
among the 14 universities in the State System of Higher Education.
Annually the SECA campaign combines the appeals of more than 2,800 agencies
statewide, nationally and abroad. Locally the drive also supports the many member agencies of
the United Way of Erie County.
-30WARicah

A member of the State System of Higher Education