Dr. Thomas Blevins, Director of Instructional Technology and the Center for Extended Learning at Bluefield State College, has delivered presentations on distance learning to two colleges within West Virginia's State College System.

Earlier this academic year, he presented the program "Designing Courses and Instruction through Instructional Performance Systems, Incorporated (IPSI)" at Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College. Last weekend, he directed two workshops--Designing and Delivering Courses for Distance Learning, and: Hands-On Use of an Electronic Classroom--at Glenville State College.

Bluefield State College will host a national distance learning conference, May 15-16, on the College's Bluefield campus. Nationally-recognized speakers, including, Jacques Dubois, Tom Wilkinson, Bridget Franklin, John Graham, Bill Struhar, and Tom Danford, will be featured presenters during the two-day event.

Specific conference topics include "Access and Excellence: The Creation of High Quality Distance Education Programming," "Transforming Education through Faculty Development: The Sinclair Summer Institute and Electronic College," "The MOO and Distance Education: Reaching the Pasture Lands," and "Distance Learning: A Transformation Model for Higher Education," as well as two sessions devoted to hands-on utilization of an electronic classroom.

Additional information regarding the conference may be obtained by contacting Dr. Blevins at (304) 327-4059, or by e-mail: tblevins@bluefieldstate.edu

"I''ve had the opportunity to live two dreams," departing Bluefield State College women's basketball coach Tom Jessee noted. "I got a college education, then I became a head basketball coach. I'll always have experiences as a former student, athlete, and coach at Bluefield State that I will cherish in the years to come."

Jessee's comments highlighted BSCÕs annual athletics awards banquet, April 30 at the College. His Lady Blues won four WVIAC championships and his teams reached the NAIA National Tournament in 1985 & Ô93. He coached the Lady Blues to a record of 177-85, including a 136-47 mark in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Conference.

Representatives of the coaching staff for each of the nine intercollegiate sports programs (men's and women's basketball, cross country, and tennis, as well as men's golf and baseball, along with women's softball) and cheerleading squad at BSC presented awards and recognized individual members of their teams. Cross country standout Bev Stepp and Wendy Black received All-WVIAC honors. Stepp has earned all-conference recognition in each of her three seasons at BSC.

Golfers Bill Eaton and Casey Cure, who finished ninth and 17th among 58 golfers in the conference championship were also recognized. Pitcher Keith Bryant was cited as an all-conference candidate in the soon to be named all-WVIAC baseball team, and J.T. Bradley received varsity letters in three sports (basketball, tennis, and cross country).

Men's basketball coach Terry Brown displayed the "WVIAC Sportsmanship Award," presented to this year's Big Blues' team after a vote of basketball officials in the conference. Jessee noted that this year's Lady Blues' team ranked first in the nation in defense, limiting opponents to less than 40% shooting from the floor. Two graduating basketball team members, Cortina Heartwell and Donna Gardner, both of whom scored over 1000 points in their college careers, were also extended special recognition during the program.

Campus Activities

• Six "open visitation meetings" were held at BSC campuses in Bluefield, Lewisburg, and Beckley, during which students, staff, and the public were encouraged to talk to the BSC President about thoughts, ideas, and concerns they wished to express

   

• More than 400 area public school students participated in the BSC Model United Nations Council Conference, April 10-11 at the College. The event was hosted by the BSC Model U.N. debate team

   

• Two students from BSC's Greenbrier Community College Center were named to the All-West Virginia Academic Team for Community and Technical Colleges

   

• BSC students earned eleven first-place awards during the recent Phi Beta Lambda state competition in Charleston, and all qualified to participate in the National Leadership Conference in July

   

• The College served as a host site for the educational video conference, "The New Public University: How Do We Compete in a Changing Environment?"

   

• Continued work on a variety of campus improvement projects, opening larger sidewalks and steps, built to meet ADA specifications

   

• Directed four workshops, through Student Support Services, designed to enhance students' study skills

   

• Prepared for two Summer 1997 orientation sessions for new students and their families

  Partnership Activities

   

• The "James H. Shott Endowed Chair in Business" has been established to honor one of this region's outstanding business and community leaders. Establishment of the endowed chair marks successful completion of a fund raising program in which $150,000 was pledged, and augments the Business Division's ability to attract outstanding faculty and recognize excellence in business instruction

   

• BSC's Electrical Engineering Technology program received a major state-of-the-art equipment gift, worth $12,000, from Wainwright Technical Sales. The "remote distributed input/output equipment" will permit students to gain hands-on experience in the use of equipment in use in the marketplace today

   

• Hosted a second series of question/answer sessions conducted by representatives of WVU's Executive M.B.A. program, which will be presented this fall at BSC sites

   

• BSC Volunteer Income Tax Assistance accounting faculty and students in Bluefield and Lewisburg donated 435 hours and prepared 430 tax returns for low income and elderly individuals

   

• Two BSC Business Division faculty have been invited to be featured presenters at the annual "Academy of Management" conference in Boston, August 9-13. The conference annually attracts faculty and administration from leading business schools throughout America

   

• A BSC Nursing faculty member presented the program, "Nursing Research in West Virginia--Guiding Practice into the Next Millennium," during the West Virginia League of Nursing's annual meeting in Parkersburg

   

• BSC Nursing faculty member's co-authored work, "Mall Walking, An Effective Mental Health Intervention for Older Adults," has been published in the most recent edition of "Journal of Psychosocial Nursing"

   

• BSC Mechanical Engineering Technology faculty member has been named chair of the West Virginia chapter of the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers

   

• BSC Center for Economic Enhancement and Educational Outreach completed customized Microsoft Word training program for second group of employees from First Century Bank (Bluefield, WV), and began training for a third group of employees from the bank

   

• Center for Economic Enhancement began computerized Microsoft Office training program for DS Parts (Bluefield, WV). This project is being funded through the Governor's Guaranteed Workforce Program

   

• Completed a training needs assessment for Med-Response, a home health care agency with southern West Virginia locations in Bluewell, Bluefield, and Welch

   

• Completed initial meeting with Phillips Machine Service, Inc. (Beckley), a manufacturer of mining equipment. The firm expressed interest in working with BSC to develop a company-tailored internship program to produce employees with specific technical and management skills

   

• Scheduled meeting with representatives of Hubbard Farms, Inc. (Lewisburg), owner of the British United Turkeys of America (BUTA). The firm will explore customized training and workforce development opportunities for its Greenbrier County workforce

   

• Finalized plans to participate in the 1997 Business Show (Beckley), sponsored by the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce, and the 1997 Appalachian Hardwood Expo (Bluefield), sponsored by the Princeton/Mercer County Chamber of Commerce

   

• Participated in the 1997 J104 Secretaries Fair and Expo

   

• Completed the following continuing education seminars:
  • Programmable Logic Controllers for Engineers (7 students)
  • Sexual Harassment & Fair Housing Laws for Real Estate (32 students)
  • Women's Health Care Issues (38 students)
  • Basic Dysrhythmias for Nurses (18 students)
  • Acute Care of Stroke Patient for Nurses (18 students)

   

• Co-sponsored with Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce, and hosted a "Lunch and Learn" seminar, "Business Grammar and Usage." Program was attended by 55 participants from 16 companies and organizations

   

• Sponsored one-day program of small business counseling for local entrepreneurs, provided by the WV Small Business Development Center

   

• Hosted the April "Small Business Dialogue," a program for members of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce

   

• Completed certification in the following competitive skills training modules as part of the WV Region 7 Training Network:
  • Percentages
  • Averages
  • Histograms
  • 80/20 Analysis
  • Variability Assessment
  • Standard Deviation
  • Plotting Data
  • Graphing
  • Trend Analysis
  • Sampling Applications
  • Control Charts 1, 2, and 3
  • Process Reengineering
  • Process Improvement
  (The WV Training Network was started by the Governor's Guaranteed Workforce Program to enhance coordination in delivery of services to business and ndustry)

   

• Worked with representative of Marshall University's Applied Research Department to introduce their services to business/industry in Bluefield, Princeton, and Beckley

   

• Met with representatives of WV Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division to discuss status of Paramedic Training program

   

• Participated in continuing education seminar at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy (Beckley)

   

• Director of the Center for International Understanding (CIU) at BSC will be a panelist during two programs at the National Association for Foreign Student Advisors Association of International Educators Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 20-23

   

• BSC CIU is currently coordinating "Customized Technical Assistance Programs" for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on "Fiscal Federalism" for a second group of Bosnian officials (April 12-May 10), and "AIDS-Related Non-Government Organizations" for a Rumanian representative

   

• CIU has been awarded customized training program contract on Effective Local Governments and Media Relations for Ogre, Latvia's mayor and press secretary, as well as contract to deliver, by USAID-Academy for Educational Development, a training program for 16 Russian participants on Rural Social Services in a Market Economy

   

• Circulated brochures about CIU and CIU;s customized training programs on "Regional Economic Development and Diversification through Privatization, Entrepreneurism, and Democratization"

   

• Prepared brochure "International Trade and Investment: Export Assistance Services"

   

• CIU is preparing for publication the "Commonwealth Novel in English," a semiannual scholarly journal circulated in 34 countries

   

• Establishing "English as a Second Language" program, offering non-credit courses for international students and professionals, beginning Spring Semester 1998

   

• CIU has established a self-supporting Washington, DC Bureau

   

• CIU has continued to disseminate bids for contracts from international companies to WV businesses

   

• Planning for "International Pavilion" during Princeton "Summerfest," June 20-22

   

• BSC Engineering Technology students toured the new Mercer/Summers County Water Project, a $44 million state-of-the-art facility capable of providing up to 15 million gallons of water/day to its service area

   

• BSC Engineering Technology students toured Tazewell County (VA) Public Service Authority's Bishop Water Treatment Plant, which features the only ultrafiltration membrane water treatment system in Virginia

   

• BSC-TV 10, the television production and programming component of BSC, rebroadcast on the Bluefield-area television cable system two Bluefield City Board of Directors' meetings and the April monthly Mercer County Board of Education meeting

Two Bluefield State College Business Division faculty members will be featured presenters at the "Academy of Management," the nation's premier organization for management faculty in higher education, August 9-13 in Boston, MA.

Dr. Steve Bourne, Professor of Business and Director of the Center for Labor-Management Initiatives, and John Snead, Associate Professor of Business, will present "Environmental Determinants of Organizational Ethical Climate: A Community Perspective," at the meeting, which will attract higher education business educators from the leading business schools throughout the nation.

All scholarly submissions received by the Academy of Management are distributed for blind review by three colleagues, and only 20-30% of submissions are accepted for inclusion at the Academy meeting.

The Academy program includes presentations from business schools at institutions of higher education, including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Stanford, UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University.

The presentation by Dr. Bourne and Professor Snead focuses upon how a community's values and norms can impact a business or industry locating in that region. "Our research showed that a company can't come into an area and establish its own 'climate' as easily as it may think," Bourne noted. Many companies talk about creating their own culture--we use the term 'microculture'. We have found that when a company comes into a region, it will be most successful when it takes into account the norms and standards of the people who live there."

"This research has particular relevance to corporate training efforts, because it may alter methids by which such training efforts are conducted," Snead said. "We intend to conduct further research in this area."

Bourne and Snead expect to submit their presentation for publication in a scholarly journal following the Academy meeting.

More than 400 area public school students participated in the Bluefield State College Model United Nations Conference, April 10-11, at BSC. The event, hosted by the BSC Model U.N. debate team, included one General Assembly, two Senior High School Security Councils, and one Junior Security Council.

Participating schools included Bluefield High, Bluefield Middle, Graham High, Graham Middle, Iaeger High, Pocahontas High, PikeView High, Princeton Junior High, Richlands High, Richlands Middle, and Tazewell High.

BSC Model U.N. member Amanda Smith, who served as Secretary General for the event, noted, "This conference benefited our students in many ways, including interaction with other students in the region and the opportunity to explore the world from an other-than-American perspective. BSC Model U.N. hopes this educational experience is one that the public school student participants will never forget. These students are tomorrow's leaders."

Smith, BSC Model U.N. Advisor John White, and 28 BSC Model U.N. team members coordinated the two-day competition. Fifty awards were presented to individuals and teams.

The American Legion Riley-Vest Post #9, has presented American flags to a variety of international guests recently. Working with the Bluefield State College Center for International Understanding, which has conducted numerous customized training workshops for international entrepreneurs visiting the area, the Riley-Vest Post #9 has presented American flags to delegations from Slovakia, Hungary, and Bosnia.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bluefield Fire Fighters, and Riley-Vest Post #9 have conducted fund-raising efforts to purchase and donate to the City of Bluefield more than 150 flags for public display on the streets of the city.

Bluefield State College nursing faculty Beth Pritchett and Betty Nash Blevins were featured presenters at a recent one day statewide workshop for home health nurses in Flatwoods. The program, "The Patient With Diabetes at Home," was presented by the West Virginia Council of Home Health Agencies, Inc., and the West Virginia Diabetes Control Program.

Pritchett, Director of the BS Nursing Program at BSC, presented "The History & Physical Exam of the Client with Diabetes Mellitus," and Blevins, Associate Professor of Nursing at BSC, presented "The Pathophysiology of Diabetes Mellitus."

Sixty-five RNs from throughout West Virginia attended the conference, and individual presentations were videotaped for future use as a teaching resource for home health nurses.

Bluefield State College students earned eleven 1st Place awards during the recent Phi Beta Lambda state competition in Charleston. Phi Beta Lambda is an extension of the secondary schools organization "Future Business Leaders of America," and is involved in promoting the personal and professional growth of its members.

BSC winners included Jennifer Anderson (Accounting I), Johanna Sabo (Business Communications and Machine Transcription), Amy Kidd (Business Principles), Melanie Moure (Economics), Steve Tibbs (Finance and Impromptu Speaking), Mike Christian (Management and Marketing), Sherrie Rose (Public Speaking), and Katie Kidd (Telecommunications).

Cynthia Higgins, Jeremiah Gibson, Kidd, Moure, Stephanie Adams, Josh Gibson, Rose, and Sabrina Dillon were second-place finishers at the state competition, and Chris Flynt finished third.

Sherrie Rose of BSC was also elected State Phi Beta Lambda vice president.

"Our students performed very well at the state level," BSC PBL co-advisor Dr. Deb Halsey-Hunter noted. "We are now beginning plans for raising funds so our state-level student winners can travel to Anaheim (July 5-11) to complete in the National Leadership Conference."

Dr. Patricia Mulvey, Professor of History at Bluefield State College, has been selected to be a "Coolidge Fellow" at the 1997 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (ARIL) Research Colloquium, July 6-August 1 at Columbia University.

The BSC history professor will be one of 20 Coolidge Fellows, selected on a competitive grant basis, to take part in the colloquium. ARIL conducts research colloquia at selected majo research universities each summer.

Her presentation at the research colloquium will be "Afro-Brazilian Brotherhoods: Quest for Identity and Community."