NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

3/11/2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES ­ Ten proposals from Northwestern State University faculty received funding in the first round of NSU Enrichment Fund to Foster Professional Development Grants.

Seven grants were for professional development and three for proposal stimulus.

In an effort to grow the research enterprise at Northwestern and, thus, promote economic development in NSU's local and regional service areas, the NSU Administration recently created the NSU Enrichment Fund, or NEF," said Dr. Priscilla Kilcrease, director of the Northwestern Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. "NSU faculty can now avail themselves of money available under the Fund to enhance the competitiveness of their proposal submissions to external funding agencies, as well as to engage in professional development activities designed to increase their academic and competitive stature in the Federal research and development marketplace."
Professional development recipients were: Scott Burrell and Pia Wyatt, Mrs. H.D. Dear Sr. and Alice E. Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts, "Southeastern Theatre Conference." The conference provides many valuable opportunities for faculty development and also provides NSU Theatre students who are attending the conference an opportunity to have on-site mentoring and advising.

Marcelline Fusilier, College of Business, "A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Technology Acceptance and Use." The project involves testing well accepted theoretical models with a large international data set. Funds will provide an upgrade for SPSS (statistics) software and an AMOS structural equation modeling package to permit the project director to exploit the potential of an international data set on student Internet adoption and use.

Eric Marsh, School of Creative and Performing Arts, "U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology Conference." Marsh will attend the U. S. Institute for Theatre Technology Conference in Toronto, Canada in March. This annual conference provides a forum for professionals to come together and discuss the most up-to-date advances in equipment and technique.

Paul Nagel, College of Education, "Cooperative Learning: A Model for Teaching." Nagel will learn cooperative learning structures and strategies that will be used in the promotion of scholarly techniques in the social studies methods classroom. He will become a nationally certified trainer in cooperative learning techniques that will allow him to train NSU education students, area in-service teachers and other teachers in the state.

J. Mark Thompson, School of Creative and Performing Arts, "Professional Development through Participation in the Alessi Seminar IV and the 2005 International Trombone Festival." The Alessi Seminar IV is a prestigious 10-day event developed by Joseph Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic, whose goal is to elevate the musical and technical mastery of the trombone to the highest level. The International Trombone Festival is the highest level international conference available in Thompson's career field. The knowledge gained by Thompson will be directly incorporated into his studio and classroom teaching where it will serve not only as an extension program but also as a powerful recruiting tool to attract future students.

Darrell Fry, Nathan Hutchings, Andrei Ludu, College of Science and Technology, "Publication of International Symposium Proceedings." The Interdisciplinary Experimentation and Scholarship (IDEAS) Program hosted the first International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Science (ISIS) at NSU in October. The 1969 Nobel Laureate in physics and 37 distinguished researchers from around the world met during the three-day conference. This grant will facilitate the IDEAS Program in achieving one of the objectives of the conference-the publication and dissemination of the proceedings of the conference.

Lisa Abney, College of Liberal Arts, Louisiana Folklife Center, "Linguistic Survey of North Louisiana." North Louisiana, because of its historical and cultural development, is home to at least two, and likely more, important dialects which have not been addressed in precious research. Abney, in her continuing research for the Linguistic Survey of North Louisiana, disputes the long-standing view held by some researchers and by outsiders that North Louisiana is essentially one-dialect region which is similar to the mid-South dialect.

Proposal stimulus recipients include: Walter Flomer, Department of Chemistry and Physics, "Exploration of Novel Metal-Containing Polymers." This project will strengthen the research into metal-containing polymers at NSU and will educate undergraduates in chemical synthesis and analysis.

Michael Bodri, Department of Biological Sciences, "Construction of a Llama Phage-Display Library." In this project, blood will be collected from llamas and messenger RNA (mRNA) isolated. Purification from the total RNA and isolation of poly A+RNA will then be performed.

Rae Osborn, Department of Biological Sciences, "Integrating Water Quality Testing into Undergraduate Laboratories." This project will introduce an inquiry-based water quality testing module into the microbiology and entomology laboratory curriculum in the Department of Biological Sciences. This curriculum will demonstrate the department's commitment to the National Science Education Standards which encourage students to engage in inquiry or research.

According to Kilcrease, financial underpinnings to support the Fund come from money provided to NSU by external sponsors that are over and above the actual costs required to implement the scope of work of a funded proposal. Indirect costs are typically used by recipient institutions to offset the additional facilities-use and administrative costs incurred when a faculty member undertakes a special, externally-funded project.

"If the NSU Enrichment Fund becomes a successful vehicle for increasing externally-sponsored research and scholarly activity at NSU, as is anticipated by the University administration, NSU faculty and the surrounding Natchitoches community will be the ultimate beneficiaries, since indirect costs recovered from all new grants and contracts thus generated will be funneled back into the Enrichment Fund to promote more sponsored-project activity at NSU," said Kilcrease.

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