Vol. XXXVI, No. 14

April 23, 2007

This Week at Valencia

Friday, April 27

Collegewide Student Development Team, 9:30 a.m., East Campus, 5-217D

District Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

The summary of the District Board of Trustees meeting held on April 17 will appear in the April 30 issue of the Bulletin.

Commencement Ceremonies

Commencement ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 5, at Silver Spurs Arena, Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee . The commencement ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Please allow adequate travel time.

All ceremony participants are to wear full academic regalia and report to room number 157, between 9-9:30 a.m. at the Silver Spurs Arena. Staff will be available at the main entrance to direct you to the room.

Please remember that a ticket is necessary for each family member, including children, regardless of age. If you wish to obtain tickets for guests, please contact Paula Kerr, administrative assistant, Admissions and Records, extension 1506.

Faculty/Staff Academic Regalia Has Arrived

The academic regalia for faculty/staff has arrived and is in your campus Business Office. Please be sure to pick up your regalia prior to close of business on Friday, May 4.

Endowed Chairs Still Available to Full-time Faculty

There are 25 endowed chairs still available to full-time faculty. The Foundation has re-opened the application process and the guidelines, application and list of available chairs can be found at http://www.valencia.org/. The application deadline is May 9 and questions can be directed to Becky Gallup in College & Community Relations, ext. 3218.

News from Procurement

Valencia Name Tags - The price of engraved Valencia name tags is increasing from $6.50 each to $6.70 each and this includes shipping. Turnaround time is 3-5 business days. You can order your engraved Valencia name tags on Procurement's Website. All you need to do is fill in the necessary blanks on the form provided at: www.valenciacc.edu/procurement/facultystaff.asp.

Finance Banner Training - Training for all Finance Banner users will begin at the end of May and continue through July. Classes are broken down into 3-4 hour sessions:

•  Basic Finance Banner - designed for the user who inputs requisitions, follows the payment process, needs to query information and keeps track of the budget.

•  Finance Self Service -designed for the casual user who inputs requisitions and looks up funds available. Must also sign up for Basic Finance Banner.

•  Banner for Budget Management - designed for the budget manager who needs to query information and review their budget or staff who will be involved with budget transfers.

All classes will be available through Leadership Valencia registration.

Massages are going great! The following dates are available:

•  Osceola - April 24, 11a.m.-2 p.m. (slots are still available)

•  East - May 14, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (all slots are open)

•  CJI - May 14, 2-4 p.m. (all slots are open)

Call Debi at ext. 2281 or email her at djakubcin@valenciacc.edu to reserve your massage.

START! Promoting is a healthy lifestyle campaign through the Start! Program in partnership with the American Heart Association. To learn more and register go to www.americanheart.org/start.

Why is walking so beneficial? Walking has the lowest drop out rate of any physical activity and is the simplest positive change individuals can make to effectively improve their heart health.

Weight Watchers is going strong! Valencia has lost 923.8 pounds with over 4 weeks left in this term. We hope to lose over 1,000 pounds! Please join us at any time.

You can access information, ask questions or just browse, by going to our website at http://valenciacc.edu/wellness/. Wellness is a gift to you so give yourself a gift today.

Valencia 's Brain Bowl Does It Again

The Valencia Brain Bowl team won its fourth national title recently at the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) Intercollegiate Tournament at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis . A second Valencia team took third overall, with Gulf Coast Community College coming in second and completing a Florida sweep of the community college trophies. Valencia also won the championship in 2002, 2003, and 2004, with third-place finishes in 2005 and 2006 (it's nice to get the big trophy again!).

Valencia students Sean Platzer, Anthony Nguyen , and Ian Mackenzie were community college all-stars, finishing second, third, and fourth, respectively, in overall individual scoring.

At this tournament the community college teams also competed against freshmen and sophomores from four-year schools and Valencia beat teams from Dartmouth , Minnesota , Washington University of St. Louis, Toronto , and Tennessee-Chattanooga. The A-team finished 15th out of 32 teams overall, while the B-team finished 24th. (The community college title is awarded to the highest-ranking community college team in the field).

The national championship team was comprised Sean Platzer, Taz Zifos, Jaclyn Constantine, Mark Prather, and Carrie Nieroda-Kraus . The third-place team included Eric Robinett, Tristan Byers, Anthony Nguyen, Ian Mackenzie, and Lane Silberstein. These students practiced six hours a week on West campus in addition to putting in many more hours of study and travel to early tournaments to get this good. Boris Nguyen (Math, West) and Lois McNamara (Humanities Emeritus, West) also logged many hours preparing and traveling with the students.

Thank you to all faculty, staff and administrators who helped support Brain Bowl this year, with special thanks to those who recommended students and to Chanda Torres and Douglas Chaffee of Student Activities.

A special note to faculty and all others who work with students: every one of the players on the championship team is moving on, so if you see students who love to learn, understand references to Diogenes or the Riemann Zeta function or Dean Acheson or George Eliot or transposons (all things which came up at the tournament) without resort to the textbook, or just want a good academic challenge, send them our way. We practice on West Campus in 2-239 from 1-4 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays in the fall and spring terms, and we'll be practicing most weeks in the summer as well. If you know such students, have them contact Chris Borglum or Boris by e-mail.

Kudos

Marilyn McLatchey , professor of Humanities, has been named the 2007 Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award winner by the Salem College Center for Women Writers. McLatchey will read from her winning work, an excerpt from a memoir, in September, 2007 at the Center for Women Writers in Winston-Salem , North Carolina .

A Warm Valencia Welcome to These new Full-time Employees

Brian Bellissimo, Jr. , instructional technology services technical supervisor, Library, Winter Park-142, mail code 5-4, ext. 6819 (previously P/T hourly)

Katie Cheek , executive assistant to the Executive Vice President, Academic Affairs, DTC-406A, mail code DTC-4

Wafia Sayfalnasr , student services specialist, Answer Center , East-5-211, mail code 3-15

A Fond Farewell and Best Wishes to

Eileen Oswald , professor, English, East, retiring 4/30/07