Friday, January 27, 2012

SBU Director of Safety and Security Receives Professional Certification

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University’s Director of Safety and Security Mark Grabowski recently earned the Certified Protection Professional (CPP) title from the American Society for Industrial Security International (ASIS).

“The CPP is the most rigorous, prestigious, recognized professional designation in the international security community,” said Grabowski, “and I am honored to be one of only a few individuals with a CPP in Southwest Missouri.


ASIS is the largest organization for security professionals, with more than 37,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1955, ASIS is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and productivity of security professionals by developing educational programs and materials that address broad security interests. ASIS also advocates the role and value of the security management profession to business, the media, governmental entities, and the public.

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PHOTO: SBU’s Director of Safety and Security Mark Grabowski

Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

SBU Annual Church Music Workshop Feb. 2-4

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University's thirty-eighth annual church music workshop will take place February 2-4 on the Bolivar campus. The event will bring together church musicians from across the state for three days of sharpening skills, reading new music, and receiving encouragement.

This year's workshop will feature seven-time Dove Award winning song-writer, arranger, and music producer Craig Adams of Nashville, Tenn. Adams will teach sessions on song writing, worship preparation, and music selection for worship.

Other clinicians include SBU provost Dr. Bill Brown, leading sessions for keyboard minister’s worship; pastor at McCarthy Baptist Church, Dan McLaughlin of St. Joseph Mo, leading sessions for bi-vocational ministers; Tanya McMillan of the Missouri Baptist Convention teaching children's choir leadership; and Anne Blankenship of First Baptist Church, in Bolivar, teaching preschool and kindergarten choir leadership.

There will be a concert on Friday evening, February 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Meyer Recital Hall in the Casebolt Music Center featuring Craig Adams, the Missouri Music Men and Brass, and members of the SBU music faculty. The concert is free and the public is invited to attend. 

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

SBU CIS Department to Receive NVIDEA Instrumentation Award

SBU CIS Department to Receive NVIDEA Instrumentation Award

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University’s nationally-recognized Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) announced today the department has been chosen to be the recipient of an instrumentation award supported by NVIDEA, a world leader in visual and parallel computing products.

The award includes four high-end NVIDEA GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) which can be used for extremely advanced video and graphics processing. Together the four cards are valued at $6,000.

 
According to Dr. Baochuan Lu, CIS department faculty member, the cards will be used in the CIS department’s parallel processing curriculum. “These cards represent cutting-edge graphics processing achieved through multi-core, parallel processing approaches. Two of the GPU’s have 448 cores, in essence achieving the work of 448 computers all in one unit. We’ve been given two of these cards and two more which have the ability to supply high-end graphics to three monitors simultaneously. Our students are really going to enjoy working in this kind of environment.” 

The instrumentation award resulted from the CIS department’s participation in the early adopter program of the NSF/IEEE TCPP’s (National Science Foundation, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Technical Committee on Parallel Processing) curriculum initiative for parallel and distributed computing.  SBU joins only 33 universities around the world who have achieved the same status. The initiative, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Intel, and IBM, encourages universities which have the faculty expertise to adopt the curriculum to prepare their students for the next generation of computational devices.

The GPU’s will be housed in the CIS department research lab located in the Gene Taylor Free Enterprise Center on SBU’s Bolivar campus, and pose special challenges for the Lab.

“These GPU/parallel processing boards require a significant amount of power,” said Dr. James Cain, CIS department faculty member and research lab coordinator. “We’ve spec’ed the systems at 1200 watts, which is the largest I have ever dealt with. These GPU’s are incredibly powerful.” The GPU’s are projected to be available for use by CIS department students sometime during the spring semester.

SBU’s CIS department four full-time faculty members, two faculty associates and close to 80 students majoring in the computer or information sciences. Among evangelically Christian institutions, SBU is one of the leading producers of software engineers in the United States.

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PHOTO from left to right: SBU’s Dr. James Cain and Dr. Baochuan Lu

Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

Friday, January 20, 2012

SBU to Receive Commerce Bank Scholarship Grant

SBU to Receive Commerce Bank Scholarship Grant

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University will benefit from a recent grant to the Missouri Colleges Fund (MCF). This $16,000 grant underwrites the Commerce Bank MCF’s 16 member schools including SBU. These scholarships will be awarded by the member schools on the basis of financial need.

MCF member schools are independent baccalaureate degree-granting liberal arts and comprehensive colleges and universities in the state of Missouri. Their income is derived primarily from private sources.

The MCF was incorporated in 1952 as a partnership of private enterprise and the member independent colleges and universities in the Show-Me State. The Fund is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporation; therefore, all contributions to the Fund are tax-deductible up to the limits prescribed by the law.
More information about MCF can be found online at www.mocollegesfund.org.

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

SBU Gallery’s First Exhibit of 2012: “Small Town Images”

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu


BOLIVAR, Mo. – The Driskill Gallery, located in the Jester Learning and Performance Center of Southwest Baptist University, presents “Small Town Images”, a photography exhibit by Gregory Booker.

Booker received his Bachelor in Fine Arts from Drury College and his MFA in Design from the University of Oklahoma.  He is currently the Assistant Professor of the Art/Art History and Communication Department at Drury University.  He is also the Pool Art Center Gallery Director at Drury.

The exhibit will run through February 17.  Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  For further information, call Gallery Director Dianna Callahan at 328-1651.

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

SBU Announces December 2011 Graduate/Honor Roll Lists

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Since its founding in 1878, SBU has enjoyed a legacy of excellence in academics along with an intense passion for building Christ’s kingdom.

Follow the link below to see the December 2011 graduation list.

Undergraduate students will graduate with honors according to the following GPAs. In order to be graduated with honors, students must have earned a minimum of 45 semester hours of credit at SBU prior to the semester of graduation.

Summa cum laude 3.850-4.00
Magna cum laude 3.700-3.849
Cum laude 3.500-3.699

December 2011 honor roll lists: http://www.sbuniv.edu/news/HonorRoll/index.html

Honor Roll
To be listed on the semester's honor roll, students must carry at least 12 hours of college work at Southwest Baptist University and earn at least a B (3.00 GPA), with no grade below C.
Trustees’ List ..................... 3.85 - 4.00 Deans’ List......................... 3.50 - 3.69
President's List ................... 3.70 - 3.84 Honor's List........................ 3.00 - 3.40

SBU graduates have gone on to excel at Harvard, Notre Dame, Dartmouth, and other Ivy League schools. Our graduates have served and are serving in national, local, and state government. They have had successful careers with companies such as Cerner, Smith Barney/CitiGroup, Hallmark, Proctor & Gamble, Dannon Inc., New York Life, Bayer, Eli Lilly and Company, John Deere, Boeing, Motorola, Intel and Microsoft.

Many SBU graduates have been chosen to pastor churches, lead worship, and serve as missionaries in North America and around the world. SBU is a leader among private universities in the Midwest in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students as servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.


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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

SBU CIS Faculty Research to be Published

Research to be published in the May 2012 issue of Journal for Computing Sciences in Colleges

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University's Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS)  announced today that three CIS Department faculty members and one SBU alum will be published in the May, 2012 issue of the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (JCSC). The faculty will present their work at the Central Plains Regional meeting of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC-CP) in Springfield, Missouri, on March 31st. 


CIS Department professors Dr. James Cain, Jeff Kimball, and chair Dr. Tim DeClue collaborated on a paper titled “Learning Theory in Computer Science 1: An Experiment Supporting the Use of Multiple Languages.” The paper reported on an educational experiment conducted at SBU which documents the educational benefit to learning concepts of computer science through multiple computer languages.

The second paper, “Silent Partners: Discovering Computer Science in the Missouri K12 Math Curriculum,” reviews the connections between the Missouri K12 Math Curriculum and foundational topics in computer science.  Dr. DeClue teamed up with Ashley Copeland (SBU ’11), math teacher at Macks Creek High School and Jennifer Ray, math teacher at Stockton High School to explore how Missouri math teachers are using computer science in the classrooms. 

“It is an honor to be selected by such a prestigious conference and publication,” said Dr. DeClue.  “It speaks well of the SBU CIS Department that our faculty continue to have their work acknowledged.  I am also extremely grateful for the CIS Department Faculty and the help of Ashley Copeland and Jennifer Ray, both talented teachers at their respective schools.  I am sure I speak for everyone when I say it is a blessing to have your work recognized”

The JCSC is a publication of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, an endorsed society of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) the world’s largest and oldest association for computing professionals. Besides appearing in the JCSC, the papers will be housed in ACM’s searchable Digital Library.  According to the ACM, the DL is the leading digital library of computer science literature, world class publications, and online books.

SBU’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences has garnered multiple national awards in recent years, and is housed in the nationally ranked College of Business and Computer Science.

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

Monday, January 9, 2012

SBU to Host Angela Morelock in February

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu

BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University will host the assistant director of Bair, Kurtz & Dobson accounting firm of Springfield, Mo. Angela Morelock. She will be addressing issues on the “Preventing and detecting fraud in your organization” seminar held on February 28 in the Wheeler Science Center, room 101 at 6:00 p.m. at the Bolivar Campus of SBU. The seminar is free and open to the public.

For 14 years Angela has been providing fraud investigation and prevention, complex litigation support and forensic accounting services for a variety of business clients. Angela regularly provides consulting and expert witness assistance to attorneys in a variety of litigation matters.

Angela is a certified fraud examiner (CFE), accredited as a certified forensic accountant by the American College of Forensic Examiners, and also a certified public accountant. Angela is a member of the ACFA, AICPA, American College of Forensic Examiners, and Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants.  She graduated in 1993 summa cum laude from Missouri State University, Springfield, with a B.S. degree in accounting.

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

SBU Announces New Major in Web Systems & Design

SBU Announces New Major in Web Systems & Design
Unique Interdisciplinary Computing program has ties to Marketing, Art, and Communications

Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
417-328-1803 / ssmith@sbuniv.edu


BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) announced today the approval of a new major leading to a bachelor’s degree in Web Systems and Design (WS&D). The degree, which meets the growing need for web-based, visual and mobile software design and development, joins two other bachelor degree programs housed in SBU’s nationally-recognized Department of Computer and Information Sciences.

According to Dr. Tim DeClue, CIS department chair, “The World Wide Web is what made the Internet a success. Prior to the Web, the Internet was a technical phenomenon…it was the introduction of the browser about 20 years ago that changed things and made the Internet available to everyone. Now almost everything we do is touched by the Web. 


"When we use a cell-phone, we use the Web. When we watch a movie, we use the Web. When we pay bills, communicate with our doctor, attend classes, we use the Web. Even the military uses the Web. This degree is designed to produce individuals who can design, build, implement, and manage web and mobile software systems, especially as they relate to software engineering, visual content, business value, and security.”

“Demand for individuals with a WS&D degree will be high,” Dr. Declue said. “Dice.com, a leading technical career search engine, returns over 14,000 job opportunities using web systems as the search term. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports high demand for computer professionals through 2018, and PayScale.com reports that web system designers can expect salaries in the $55,000 to $70,000 range depending on location and experience.”

The WS&D degree joins two other bachelor’s degree programs in the CIS Department, Computer Science and CIS. According to Dr. DeClue, the WS&D program is similar to the others because of its software development focus, yet different because of its web, marketing, and art orientation. “All three programs are incredibly good and complementary,” he added. “Computer Science retains a strong connection to the traditional scientific and mathematical basis for all computing while CIS focuses on the business application of computer science and software engineering.” Every student in the CIS Department—including WS&D majors—completes a 28-hour core of CIS courses before specializing in their specific degree requirements.

For individuals with a strong desire for a quantitative and scientific degree, computer science remains the best known and strongest preparation for a career in scientific computing, software engineering or graduate school. A computer information science degree prepares you for business oriented software development career or a graduate program in a technical MBA or software engineering. The CIS Department also points out that most computer science majors double major in mathematics due to the large amount of math required by the CS degree. This situation creates a defacto fourth degree program (computer science and math) which fits the needs of many quantitatively-talented students.

SBU’s Computer and Information Sciences Department is home to approximately 80 students, four full-time faculty members and two faculty associates. CIS students enjoy the benefit of over 80 years of combined faculty experience which includes teaching, writing, research, and experience in industry. In 2011, the SBU CIS Department’s curriculum was recognized by the National Science Foundation’s Technical Committee for Parallel Processing, and in the last six years SBU CIS students have brought home over thirty national awards including four national championship trophies. 


The CIS Department’s competitive programming teams have been the Central Plains regional champions in the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC) five of the last six years.

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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. At SBU, the faculty and staff create a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.

SBU’s Office of Marketing and Communications is available to news media 24 hours a day at (417) 399-7918.