New England Board of Higher Education » Westfield State University

The Art of Math at Westfield

John O. Harney — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:23:23 +0000

Westfield State University math professors were awarded a $550,600 grant from the National Science Foundation to support an innovative approach to teaching mathematics to non-mathematics and science students.

The grant, titled “Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM): Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics for Liberal Arts,” supports development of a library of 10 full-length, standalone textbooks, student and teacher resource guides and assessment tools for Mathematics for Liberal Arts courses.

Mathematics for Liberal Arts includes college-level, general education math courses for students whose majors do not require a particular mathematics course like calculus, algebra or statistics.

The professors who received the grant—Julian Fleron, Philip Hotchkiss, Volker Ecke and Christine von Renesse—say they hope DAoM will help more people realize that while mathematics is practical, it can also be approached creatively and artisticly serving as a bridge between the STEM fields and the arts and humanities.

Among Comings & Goings: Delta Cost Project Will Dissolve, but its Work on Higher Ed Spending Will Go On

John O. Harney — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:33:39 +0000

After five years bringing attention to how colleges spend money, the Delta Cost Project will dissolve in 2012. On Jan. 1, the database portion of its work will become part of the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS data-collection and communication work. The project's analysis and communication about revenue and spending trends will shift to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), where it will be known as the Delta Cost Project at AIR.

Jane Wellman founded the Delta Project in 2007 with support from the Lumina Foundation for Education and became the project's executive director. A clear and forceful writer on ways colleges spend money, Wellman wrote for NEJHE in 2010 about how colleges can reduce costs and permanently reduce spending demands while maintaining access. In the past year, she has split her time at the Delta Project and at the National Association of System Heads, where she will now focus her work.

****

Trustees at St. Joseph's College in Standish, Maine, appointed Kenneth Lemanski to be interim president, while a search committee conducts a national search for a permanent president. A former NEBHE delegate from Massachusetts, Lemanski has held senior positions at the University of Massachusetts, the Council of Presidents for the Massachusetts State University system and, most recently, Westfield State University. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1976 to 1978 and 1980 to 1991. He assumed the interim position at St. Joseph's on Oct. 3.

****

Fairfield University appointed four new trustees to serve six-year terms. They are William C. Crager, president and co-founder of Envestnet, Inc.; William P. Egan, founder and general partner of Alta Communications and Marion Equity Partners LLC; Biff J. O’Reilly, president of PBS Capital; and the Rev. Stephen A. Privett, S.J., president of the University of San Francisco.

Worcester State U Taps Westfield State Exec as Prez; Former Boston Fed Chief to Head Simmons Biz School

John O. Harney — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:22:19 +0000

Worcester State University trustees voted to recommend Barry Maloney be the university's next president, starting July 1. Maloney, currently vice president for student affairs at Westfield State University, will succeed Janelle Ashley, who will step down at the end of this academic year after 13 years on the job in Worcester.

****

Cathy E. Minehan, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for 13 years, was named dean of the Simmons College School of Management, beginning Aug. 1. Since leaving the Fed, Minehan has served on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards and chaired the Massachusetts Governor's Council of Economic Advisors and the Massachusetts General Hospital board. In 1998, she wrote for NEBHE's journal about how to reinvent New England's economy.

Middlesex CC Names Library for Evan Dobelle

John O. Harney — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 22:00:03 +0000

Middlesex Community College named the library on its Lowell, Mass. campus, for its second president Evan S. Dobelle.

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, MCC is the second largest public two-year college in New England, with 21,000 students. The library named for Dobelle is housed in MCC’s F. Bradford Morse Federal Building in the historic mill city.

Dobelle was the mayor of Pittsfield, Mass., Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Management, and U.S. Chief of Protocol under President Jimmy Carter before becoming president of MCC in 1987.

A champion of cities, Dobelle was instrumental in the Bedford, Mass. community college's effort to establish a campus in Lowell.

Dobelle also served as president of four other colleges: City College of San Francisco, Trinity College where he famously recast the college's contribution to the life of Hartford, Conn., the University of Hawaii, and Westfield State University, where he presides today.

Dobelle was president of NEBHE from 2004 to 2007 where he prodded the six states to work together on issues from building a creative economy to forging educational exchanges in Asia to boosting college readiness.