- Tickets are still available to hear Liberian President speak
- Dean of Health Sciences to retire
- All Souls service planned
- Sports administrator to give Axthelm lecture
- New digital collection available on the history of women’s sports at MU
- October issue of AJCU “Connections” highlights political engagement
- American Indian poetry reading scheduled
- University Events
1. Tickets are still available to hear Liberian President speak
Tickets are still available to hear Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, speak following the conferral of an honorary degree from Marquette next Monday. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. on Oct. 23 in the ballroom of the Alumni Memorial Union. Tickets are available for the simulcast of the event in the Weasler auditorium.
Faculty, staff and students can pick up tickets for the event in the Alumni Memorial Union, Brooks Lounge. The ticket office hours are Monday through Friday from noon to 11:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 11:30 p.m.
This is only the second time in Marquette history that a sitting head of government has made an official visit to the university. On June 16, 1956, President Edward O'Donnell, S.J., conferred an Honorary Doctor of Law degree on German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
President Johnson Sirleaf, who took office in January 2006, is internationally recognized as a leading promoter of peace, justice and democratic rule. Known as the “Iron Lady” for her strong will and determination as well as for her personal integrity, she is committed to ethical reform for the people of Liberia and the importance of education. During years of exile, the Harvard-educated President held senior leadership positions with the World Bank and the United Nations.
A mother of four sons and grandmother of nine, President Johnson Sirleaf is a strong supporter of community development and education, particularly for girls.
Along with First Lady Laura Bush, President Johnson Sirleaf recently received the 2006 International Republican Institute Freedom Award. “Through her service as a Liberian Cabinet minister in the 1970s, as a senior U.N. administrator in the 1990s, and now as her country's president, President Johnson-Sirleaf has always been deeply devoted to her country,” Laura Bush said at the IRI ceremony last month. “Her dedication to Liberia has never diminished -- not even in the face of persecution." She called the Liberian president a "terrific example of the power of education, and of why it's important to educate women and girls, and to improve opportunities for women in Africa and around the world."
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2. Dean of Health Sciences to retire
Dr. Jack Brooks, dean of the College of Health Sciences, will retire at the end of the 2006-07 school year, Provost Madeline Wake announced last week.
Dr. Brooks came to Marquette in August 1974 as a faculty member in the School of Dentistry’s Department of Basic Sciences. In 1996 he became the founding dean of the College of Health Sciences. “We recognized immediately that programs in the new college had great potential as platforms for the development of new majors and the expansion of scientific research,” Brooks recalls.
The college developed a biomedical sciences major, which is now the largest major at Marquette with more than 470 students; a Physician Assistant Program that ranks in the top six nationally; a Doctor of Physical Therapy Program that ranks 16th nationally; new undergraduate clinical programs in Exercise Science and Athletic Training; and a new Ph.D. track in neuroscience, in collaboration with the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Wake attributes the program expansion to Dr. Brooks’ advocacy and tenacity. “He brought his expertise as physiologist and imprinted the college with the soul of a scientist,” the provost says.
Dr. Brooks credits the rapid expansion of the college and its growing national reputation to “recruiting and hiring the very best faculty.” He also cites the fact that pass rates for Marquette graduates on national certification exams are significantly above national averages.
In the past decade, enrollment in the College of Health Sciences has more than doubled -- to more than 1000 students; student credit hours taught have doubled; and funded grant research support has increased tenfold to more than $2.6 million per year. “Research in the college focuses on problems of great societal concern with studies ranging from the fundamental nature of diseases to their clinical treatment,” according to Dr. Brooks.
Dr. Brooks is proud of the collaboration among units within the College of Health Sciences. “All of our programs work together to educate our students, in research and in graduate education,” he says. “I am particularly gratified with the expanded emphasis on research as a distinctive element of both undergraduate and graduate education in all of our programs. I thank Marquette for the opportunity to be successful as a scientist and to have an opportunity as dean to lead an outstanding faculty and staff in developing a college that is integral to the future of the university.”
Dr. Wake has met with faculty and staff of the College of Health Sciences to plan a national search for Brooks’ successor. “Dr. Brooks brought the college to a high level of excellence and we expect the progress to continue,” she says.
3. All Souls service planned
All members of the Marquette community who have lost a family member in the past year are invited to attend a prayer service on Tuesday, Nov. 2, in the Chapel of the Holy Family on the second floor of the Alumni Memorial Union.
This ecumenical prayer service of remembrance will involve hymns, readings and an opportunity for quiet prayer and reflection. All faculty, staff, administrators and students who lost a loved one in the past year are welcome to attend, as well as their spouses, family members and friends.
If you have any questions, please contact Laura Krenz in the Office of Mission and Identity at 8-1794 or e-mail her.
4. Sports administrator to give Axthelm lecture
Bill Hancock, former coordinator of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and author of Riding with the Blue Moth, will speak at Marquette on Monday, Nov. 6, at 7 p.m. in room 001 of Cudahy Hall, 1313 W. Wisconsin Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Hancock will talk about his new book, his life and his work and answer audience questions. Hancock’s son, Will, died in the 2001 airplane crash that took the lives of nine additional members of the Oklahoma State basketball team and support staff.
Riding with the Blue Moth is the story of Bill Hancock’s 2,747-mile cross-country bicycle trip as he struggled with his grief and depression following the death of his son.
Hancock is now administrator for college football’s Bowl Championship Series.
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