ASU News Briefs

Reinke Receives Award
Saundra J. Reinke, assistant professor of political science, is one of three professors nationwide selected as an Academy Partners Service-Learning Fellow by the Academy of Management, the American Society for Public Administration, and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

The Academy Partners program is part of an initiative to advance civic engagement and service-learning in higher education, in partnership with the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The $2000 award supports Dr. Reinke's research interest in building trust in organizations and the use of collaboration and service learning to teach teamwork.

Chemistry and Physics Professors Develop Video
Two professors in the Department of Chemistry and Physics were part of a team that developed a chemistry video that will be broadcast November 8 via satellite in celebration of National Chemistry Week. Tom Crute and Stephanie Myers, associate professors of chemistry, perform chemistry demonstrations in the video along with Bill Trammel of Fort Discovery. Much of the video was filmed at Augusta State.

Titled Chemistry of the Familiar, the video for middle school students and their teachers will be broadcast by C-band satellite, coordinates Telstar 6, transponder/Channel One at 1 p.m., on November 8. The sponsors are the Savannah River Section of the American Chemical Society and Augusta State.

National Mole Day
Students in the Augusta State University Chemistry Club celebrated National Mole Day Tuesday, Oct. 23, with a contest designed to raise money for a local school’s chemistry department. The moles being celebrated were not the little brown furry ones, but rather a unit of measurement used in chemistry.

“Mole Day is a day to draw attention to chemistry and get students more interested in chemistry,” said Tom Crute, associate professor for the department and advisor for the chemistry club. “It’s a fun day,” he said.

This year all nine professors and one lab manager from the ASU Chemistry and Physics department participated. Participants had a jar with their name on it and students contributed money to the jars. If total contributions in the professor’s jar reached at least $20, that person dressed up in a humorous costume for the day.

The students, eager to see their professors dressed in costumes, opened their wallets and soon all the jars contained at least the requisite $20. Students saw their professors lecturing this year dressed as Superman, a punk rocker, and an angel among others.

As a result of this year’s Mole Day activities, the ASU chemistry club raised $245 for one of ASU’s adopted high schools. The chemistry club will present the money to Lucy C. Laney Comprehensive High chemistry teachers to purchase lab supplies.

America Recycles
Augusta State will join with other Georgians November 15 in the 5th annual observance of America Recycles Day. The Recycling Committee will set up tables in Washington Hall and Reese Library from Nov. 12-16 where students, faculty, and staff can complete a pledge card renewing their commitment to recycling. Everyone who registers will be eligible for state and national prizes including recycled lawn furniture and carpet, environmentally friendly household products, and bicycles for kids.

The national event is held to raise consumer awareness of the need to recycle an to "close the loop" by purchasing recycled content products and packaging. Pledges may be made online at the Georgia Recycling Coalition's website at www.georgiacycles.org.