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Sac State has launched its first independent doctoral program, offering participants a doctorate in educational leadership. Designed for working professionals employed in educational leadership positions, the three-year independent doctorate provides advanced training for administrators in elementary and secondary schools as well as community colleges.
“We recognize the people who will be coming into the program work 40-hour or longer weeks, so we worked to design a program that takes that into consideration,” says College of Education Dean Vanessa Sheared.
The education system has become very demanding, with fluctuating enrollments, collective bargaining, and increasing government standards and accountability, among other pressures, says Educational Leadership and Policy Studies chair Ed Lee. The doctoral program will enhance the leadership skills of K-12 and community college leaders so they can look at all issues in a critical way “and make objective decisions that are going to benefit everyone.”
Sac State is part of the first group of CSU campuses to offer an independent doctorate. CSU campuses previously could offer doctorates only if they partnered with a UC or other doctorategranting institution.
In addition to faculty members in the colleges of Education and Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies, education leaders and policymakers from state government and professional organizations—such as the California School Boards Association, the Association for California School Administrators, California Community Colleges, and the California Teachers Association— will contribute to the program.
» www.csus.edu/EdDoctorate or (916) 278-4639
Kids who prefer a chicken curry entrée with a steamed tomato and oven roasted potatoes over a bowl of macaroni and cheese? The answer was “yes” for the elementary-school age students in Sac State’s second Summer Culinary Academy.“The questions the children ask are excellent,” says Sac State executive chef and dining services director Ruedi Egger.
“They want to know why we replace salt with spices and garlic, and that brings us to a larger discussion about making healthier eating choices.” And his students ended up with a grown-up sized education about good—and bad—eating habits. They also learned how to dice onions, sauté meats and vegetables, and prepare chocolate cream desserts. Food and personal sanitation was stressed throughout the class, as well as knife and hot food safety. Each day, the students prepared a full course meal and dessert, all made with fresh food.
“We want to plant the seed of culinary art appreciation,” Egger says.
» Dining Services at (916) 278-6376
The new Hornet Bookstore is open for business. The 53,000-square-foot space is nearly twice the size of the old store, with more space for books, textbooks, classroom and lab supplies and computer accessories. There’s also reading space and a Java City coffee house.Grand Opening for the new Hornet Bookstore is September 12, 2007.
“Forensic Biology” is one of the courses in the new concentration, “CSI: TRU” or Crime Scene Investigation: Training and Research for Undergraduates. It arose from student demand for a specialization in forensic science, fueled by popular TV shows depicting crime scene investigation, as well as advances in DNA technology, says Biological Sciences Professor Ruth Ballard. Grants provided $24,000 to refurbish two labs into a new facility that allows students to work on real projects. “The two local government crime labs in Sacramento have almost no internships for students. So this new facility is designed to provide students with investigation opportunities,” Ballard says.Class work: Using the same tests utilized in modern crime labs, students take part in research projects that address real-world, unsolved problems in forensic biology. The projects are directed to them by the Sacramento County Laboratory of Forensic Services.
Assignments: Depend on the case. For example Ballard’s students might research “contact DNA” (DNA left on an object by a person merely handling it) to determine if DNA left on bullet casings by a person who loaded a gun that was later fired could be used to generate a profile. “If we can generate DNA profiles from the casings, we could link a suspect to a gun, even in the absence of other evidence,” says Ballard.
There’s more to conducting than waving a baton in front of musicians, says Sac State professor Robert Halseth. And that’s just one of the lessons junior high and high school band teachers took away from his recent summer course.The Wind Conducting Workshop is the only one of its kind in California and one of several summer music camps for both youth and adults offered at Sac State.
Halseth and his co-director, Northwestern University conductor Mallory Thompson, helped guide the amateur conductors as they took turns leading Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “band,” the 59th Army National Guard Band. Among the tips Halseth offers: Though many people think a conductor moves his baton in time to the music, it is in fact the conductor’s moves that generate the music from the band. And good conducting entails more than arm waving. It includes score study and harmonic analysis, he says.
He also dispels the notion of conductor as dictator, barking out commands during rehearsal. Halseth said that has changed and a good conductor knows how to work with the musicians. “It is a collaboration.”
Other Sac State music camps include Jazz Camp and a chamber music workshop. Each features regular performances that are open to the public.
» www.csus.edu/music or (916) 278-5155
 Tiffany Daniels, Second bachelor’s degree, Nursing "A tank top. I’m very economical with my choices—I like Old Navy and Target. Second bachelor’s candidates receive no financial aid. My style is very laid back, casual. I’m a tank tops and flip-flops girl." |
 Azra Tucic, Junior, International Business "Four dresses for ballroom dancing. I like (the store) bebe because they design really long pants, other stores don’t. Miss Sixty is another designer I like. I pretty much wear everything from sporty to dressy. Dressy is my favorite but most people don’t wear dressy clothes for daily occasions so that kind of blows that out the window." |
 Cameron Rushing, Second bachelor’s degree, Nursing "A lab coat, for school and an Ex Officio travel shirt. I like Adidas indoor soccer shoes, a specific style called the Samba. I wear them all the time. It feels like you’re wearing slippers. They’ve had this style since the mid-70’s and I’ve been wearing them for five years." |
 Tiffany Huang, 2007 graduate, Business Administration "It’s hard to remember. I don’t go shopping too much. I bought khaki shorts for summer. I shop at Target, American Eagle, Macy’s, and Old Navy. I like T-shirts and shorts or T-shirts and jeans. I take time to get ready for an occasion but I’m always on the go so I just wear what’s comfortable." |
 Amina Bath, Junior, Government International Relations "I just bought flipflops. I like Bakers and Macy’s for shoes. For clothing, Forever 21 and the Gap. I like to think that I dress classy, but I don’t know. My favorite color is black, so normally everything I get that’s black is classy." |
 Tyehimba Kokayi, Senior, Ethnic Studies "The decorative ‘crowns’ (hats) that my wife buys for me, decorative adornments for my head. My wife and I are really into West African culture so everything that we wear is ethnocentrically inclined. Some things—like jeans—I get here and there, but generally, I’m not so much into following the social norms of style." |
It sounds downright serious—the Associated Communication Science Laboratory. And the research results it produces are building the science base for treating people with serious communication disorders. But with its own mascot (the owl—don’t ask), raucous weekly meetings where acknowledgements of good fortune include the chance to wear “the tiara,” and group votes on purposely pun-inspired project names, the ACSL, pronounced “axle,” is also a pretty cool student club.
ACSL founder and speech pathology and audiology professor Laureen O’Hanlon stresses that while having fun is certainly one draw for the organization, the real lure is the chance to work on fundamental, long-term research on treatments for conditions such as aphasia. The projects frequently result in the students—even before they have their bachelor’s degrees—getting authorship credit on papers published in professional journals and presented at national conferences.
Students review data that supports work by one of the professors in the group, which includes O’Hanlon, Larry Boles and Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin. But it often goes beyond that. The undergrads end up carrying on a phase of that work as their own thesis projects as master’s students, and in turn receive assistance from undergrads.
And the cycle continues when the students continue on to pursue a doctorate. Not only does the ACSL experience give them a leg up on securing admission but they often continue to pursue the research in their dissertations.
Teresa Domrzalski began by working on a project with O’Hanlon and soon was co-presenting to the American Speech- Language-Hearing Association. When she applied to the Ph.D. program at Arizona State University, ACSL paid off.
“My application lacked the usual master’s thesis or post-master’s professional experience,” Domrzalski says. “However, I am convinced that it was my experience in the ACSL lab and as a presenter at the national conference that contributed to my acceptance.”
The Applied Communication Science Laboratory came out of O’Hanlon’s experience as a graduate student when her mentor had a research lab where undergraduates were encouraged to work on research projects. When O’Hanlon was working on her own dissertation as a new professor at Sac State, and needed help in compiling loads of data but didn’t have money to hire an assistant, ASCL was born.
Tram funding—Plans for a tram system in and around Sac State continue to roll on. An $800,000 mixed state and federal grant for planning and design work on the proposed commuter link was approved by the California Transportation Commission in June, following an earlier recommendation by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. These funds, combined with a $924,000 grant received last year, will see the project through its final design. The system could be up and running by fall of 2010. » www.csus.edu/news/tram
Theater lobby memorial— The new lobby at the University Theatre is more than just a gateway into the world of drama and music, it’s also the legacy of a former drama student. The N. Matthew Mahan Theatre Lobby, which was dedicated in June, now welcomes theatergoers with a curved interior featuring metal textured squares. The lobby is part of a renovation package that will include new landscaping in front of the theater entrance. » www.csus.edu/dramInformation security leader—The College of Engineering and Computer Science has been designated a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance and Security by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The College offers several courses in information security—cryptography, network security, computer forensics and computer security and privacy—that meet the National Security Agency’s standards for security concepts and knowledge. Sac State was one of only five universities in California recognized. » www.ecs.csus.edu
Osher off campus—The Osher Lifelong Learning Program, which offers stimulating courses for people age 50 and older, is now available off campus as well. This fall, classes such as defense for seniors, writing children’s literature, conversational French and the history, lure and lore of chocolate, are being held at the Folsom Senior Center, the West Sacramento Senior Center, and the E.M. Hart Senior Center in Sacramento. » www.cce.csus.edu/osher
New building—University Enterprises, Inc., the not-for-profit business auxiliary of Sacramento State, has purchased the CalSTRS building on Folsom Blvd. The building adds 188,000 square feet of new space and eight acres of land on a “mini-campus” just a short distance from the main campus. The building, which will eventually house both University academic and auxiliary programs, is nearly twice as large as the University’s relatively new Academic Information Resource Center.
