Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Aug. 28, 2003, edition 1 / Page 10
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Page 10 • Thursday, August 28, 2003 NEWS The Pendulum Numerous faculty and staff join Elon for fall 2003 Matt Belanser Assistant News Editor There will be a number of new faces at the head of Elon’s classroom this fall as more than 40 new members join the teaching faculty this year. Highlighted here are just a few of the new mem bers of various departments on campus. Most new faculty members said they preferred student- engaging activities, rather than filling class time with traditional lectures. The new faculty seem to express a desire to continue Elon’s mission to support engaged learning. Amy Jones, Director of Student Activities Amy Jones is ready to bring improved programming to Elon’s campus. She said her goal for this year is to take the Student Union Board’s recognition to a higher level through the imple mentation of more weekly events. Some of the programming that SUB already sponsors includes Midnight Meals in the Zone and Monday night football, which will be held in Varsity this year. Jones said she hopes to implement a new weekly event called First Friday Coffee House. A native of Allentovm, PA, Jones received her Masters of Education in College Student Affairs from the University of South Florida. She joined the Elon community in June and said she is impressed by the dedication of Elon’s faculty and staff to the students. “It was nice that Elon truly puts their stu dents first,” she said. Chales irons, Assistant Professor of History Professor Irons is a fan of United States history. He said he likes to try to iinagine what was going through people’s minds during controversial periods in American histoiy in order to understand the motivation behind the events. Irons said he feels Elon’s history department has given him a strong foundation upon which to build his own ideas regarding his classes. Irons said one of the things that attracted him to Elon was tlie university’s ability to allow faculty to be both teachers and scholars. Irons’ specialty is in 19th century United States history and he said it was exciting to get a job at an institution that appreciated him for his specialty experience. He described his classroom style as one that encourages a lot of student input. Irons recently received his doctorate in American History from the University of Virginia. Christopher Leupold, Assistant Professor of Psychology Besides joining Elon as a new member of the psy chology department, Leupold brings extensive knowl edge of “Brady Bunch” trivia to Elon’s campus. Leupold received his doctorate from Wayne Slate University in industrial/organizational psychology. He is coming to Elon from the cor porate environment, where he was director of organizational development for The Home Deptit’s mid-Atlantic region. Leupold said he thinks his corporate experience will help him in the classroom by providing numerous real-world examples that he can share with students to help illustrate specific concepts and ideas. Leupold described his teaching style as infor mal and fun. “I’ve always considered teaching as more of a presentation,” he said. Leupold said he likes to encourage student engagement and likes to ask students what they think rather than simply delivering traditional lectures. Amanda Allen, Instructor in Sports Medicine I laving been both a student and professor, Allen said she has respect for both sides of the academic spectrum. However, she said a professor’s job can be very demanding, making sure that the expectations and needs of all of her students are met. Allen described her classroom style as hands-on and interactive. She also said she is a fan of classroom discussion. Allen said she drawn to Elon ba-ausc of the university’s good reputation for athletic training and she also said the climate change from her hometovra of Ashland, Ohio was nice. She said she hopes to spread the word about the growing athletic training program at Elon and continue her dedica tion to life-long learning. Allen received her Masters of Science in athletic training from the California University of Pennsylvania and is currently a doctoral candidate at Ohio University. John Guiniven, Associate Professor of Communications “Here’s a situation—what do you do.” This is how John Guiniven summed up his teach ing style. Guiniven said his classroom atmosphere focuses heavily on the use of case studies. He joins Elon with extensive experience in the field of public relations. Guiniven worked as a Peace Corps teacher in Thailand and served eight years as press secretary to U.S. Senator Robert Byrd before returning to school to earn his doctorate in mass communications at the University of Maryland. He has taught in Nebraska and South Carolina as well as at Syracuse University, and now brings nearly 30 years of public relations experience to Elon. He said he wanted to teach at Elon for a long time and is very glad to have become a member of the Elon community. Juliane Hammer, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Juliane Hammer joins Elon from being a postdoctoral fel low at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Hammer received her doctorate fi-om Humboldt University in Germany. She said she likes Elon’s small-school atmosphere where she can take time to talk with students and watch them grow over the years. Hammer said her teaching style is very interactive, explaining that she doesn’t believe in long, uninterrupted lectures but rather encourages a more open lecturing style where students can interrupt with any questions they may have. She also said she is trying to build more multimedia aids into her classrooms presentations to give students a more dynamic way to under stand the concepts presented. Hammer said she sympathizes with the stresses that students face and understands that being a student can sometimes be different. “As a teacher you go into a class and know what you want to do for freshmen, everything is new, everything is different.” Anthony Mancuso, Assistant Professor of Economics Anthony Mancuso recently finished his doctoral studies in economics at North Carolina State University. Mancuso said he believes the most effective method of teaching is to pro vide students with the tools they need to apply the skills they learn to the real world. Mancuso said he hopes to incorporate discussion of news articles into his class to provide addition al real-world applications. He said he wanted to stay close-to home, so Elon was the perfect choice for him. As for which role in academia he feels is rnore difficult, Mancuso said he sympathizes with students because of the many life-changing choices students are faced with every day. Shannon Pollard, Instructor in Computing Sciences Most people can’t even fathom having a conversation with a computer, but for Shannon Pollard, this is something that is most definitely a possibility. Pollard, who joins Elon as a doctoral candidate in computer science at Duke University, specializes in arti ficial intelligence. Pollard explained that toys are going to play a big role in her class room. She said fun activities are one of the best ways to help students visualize abstract concepts. Pollard said she was happy to be able to stay in North Carolina and said when she visited Elon to interview she was “totally blown away.” She said she loves how Elon’s faculty is open to her ideas and great about allowing her to bring them into the classroom. In the spring, Pollard will be teaching an artificial intelligence class in which students will be able to work with robots, using computers to program them to move, learn and even speak. In addition to her passion for computer science, Pollard also is a music lover who plays the cello. Tim Rosner / Asst. Photo Editor Assistant Professor of History Charles Irons, who joined Elon this summer, welcomes students to his class on Tuesday.
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