Longwood, Virginia Institute of Marine Science partner to restore and preserve wetlands

From Left: Dr. John Wells, dean and director of VIMS; the Honorable W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., former Virginia secretary of natural resources and a member of the Hull Springs Farm Foundation; and Longwood President Patrick Finnegan in front of Hull Springs Farm’s 400-year-old signature Southern Red Oak tree.

Longwood’s Hull Springs Farm, a demonstration site for environmentally sustainable land management, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) announced a partnership to restore, enhance and preserve 213 acres of wetlands, stream buffers and streams on a portion of the farm, located in Westmoreland County.

Under the partnership, which was announced Dec. 8, 2010, VIMS will continue to function as an adviser in establishing a self-sustaining, forested wetland that will also function as a wetland mitigation bank and provide educational and research opportunities for students and faculty at Longwood, other universities and VIMS, a leading marine research institute with expertise in wetland sciences.

Hull Springs Farm consists of 662 acres in the Mt. Holly area of Westmoreland on Virginia’s Northern Neck and was bequeathed to the Longwood Foundation in 1999 by Mary Farley Ames Lee ’38.

“Hull Springs Farm is already a leader in experimental living shoreline technologies to stabilize shoreline and create wildlife habitat,” Longwood President Patrick Finnegan said. “With this project, Longwood is furthering the commitment to improve water quality and wildlife habitat on the farm as well as in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”

Five-year online audio series “reports” events leading up to and throughout Civil War

On the occasion of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial, Longwood is “reporting” the key events of that conflict week by week through a series of podcasts developed by Longwood faculty.

The series, titled “That a Nation Might Live,” posts a new audio episode every week, turning the calendar back 150 years and allowing listeners to experience the events leading up to and during the war in an approximation of real time.

The series began in November 2010 and will run through 2015. It was conceived and developed by Dr. Chuck Ross, dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. David Coles, associate professor of history and chair of the Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy.

A podcast is a series of audio recordings released episodically that can be played directly from a website or downloaded automatically and synched to portable digital audio players like iPods. Episodes of the Civil War series can be found online at http://civilwar150.longwood.edu/. In addition to its home site, “That a Nation Might Live” has a Facebook page (search for That a Nation Might Live) and can be found on Twitter at www.twitter.com/civilwarweeks.

Security Magazine ranks Police Department in top 10 among nation’s universities

Longwood’s Chief Beach holds a copy of the Security Magazine issue that ranks Longwood’s Police Department as the 10th best in the nation among colleges and universities

The Longwood Police Department was ranked among the nation’s top 10 college and university police departments in the annual evaluation of the security industry by Security Magazine.

Longwood was one of only 24 organizations nationwide, and the only one from Virginia, to be listed in the category Education: Colleges and Universities in the November 2010 issue of the publication. Longwood ranked No. 10.

The issue contained the fifth annual Security 500 Survey, Benchmark and Trends report, which listed a combined 500 security organizations in 16 categories. The rankings are based on a survey sent to security organizations that includes a general section of questions as well as questions unique to each respective category. The year before, Longwood’s police force ranked 24^th in the survey and was one of only 27, and also the only one from Virginia, to be listed.

Two programs earn accreditation

The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA) and the graduate program in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSDS) received national recognition in November 2010.
The LCVA was accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM), joining the ranks of museums like the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk and the University of Virginia Art Museum. AAM accreditation is a seal of approval for LCVA’s high professional standards and dedication to public service. Across the country, only 4.5 percent of all museums are accredited.

The graduate CSDS program earned accreditation from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, becoming the sixth graduate program in Virginia to do so. Graduates of the program, approved in 2005, are working in public schools, hospitals, nursing facilities and with home health providers throughout Virginia and the East Coast.

Jarman Hall renovations are deserving of applause

Inside the renovated Jarman Auditorium

Jarman Hall, Longwood’s main performance for nearly six decades, reopened Oct. 7, 2010, following an extensive renovation.

New lighting and sound fixtures were added, interior finishes were spruced up, and all of the mechanical and electrical systems, including the HVAC system, are new. The previous HVAC system, which was below the floor in the auditorium, was so noisy that it had to be turned off during performances.

Changes outside the building include new urns, planting beds and brick walkways, and a new bus pull-off on High Street. The front façade now has expanded glass panels, letting more light into the lobby, and a rear façade was added with pilasters and a cornice that mimic those on the front.

Other highlights of the interior renovation include several upgrades to the auditorium: new paint, carpeting, a tambour top for controlling lighting and sound, a forestage reflector in the ceiling in front of the stage and 14 acoustical curtains lining the perimeter of the hall. Elsewhere in the building, a freight elevator was installed, and two large dressing rooms with attached bathrooms were added on the downstairs level.

Jarman opened in 1951.

National commendation notes success of Summer Literacy Institute

Longwood’s Summer Literacy Institute was one of six programs in the country to earn a formal national commendation from the Affiliate Assembly of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in September 2010.

The commendation recognized the institute’s support of the profession and alignment with AASL’s learning standards, program guidelines and principles. The Virginia Educational Media Association nominated the institute for the award for “providing teachers and school librarians with professional development and an opportunity to forge collaborative relationships.”

The Summer Literacy Institute attracts educators from across Virginia for its annual program and covers topics including reading aloud, storytelling, fluency and group writing. Participants include school librarians, literacy coaches, reading specialists and classroom teachers. The institute is cosponsored by the Literacy and Culture and the School Library Media graduate programs in the College of Education and Human Services.

New bridges provide Lancer Park with better access to main campus

From left: Alan Cook (Longwood Capital Planning & Construction), Farmville Town Manager Gerry Spates, Otis Brown (Longwood Real Estate Foundation), John Adams (rector of the Longwood Board of Visitors), Thomas Talley (English Construction), Gary Johnson (RK&K, the designers), SGA president Ben Brittain, Longwood President Patrick Finnegan, Eric Houghland (High Bridge Trail State Park), Ken Copeland (Longwood Real Estate Foundation) and Buddy Barron (Longwood Facilities Management).

Two new bridges that link Longwood’s main campus to Lancer Park, a nearby complex of university-managed apartments and athletics fields, opened Sept. 9, 2010.

Students who live in the apartments or wish to use the athletics fields can now access them from a new pedestrian bridge that crosses from Lancer Park over Third Street to Grove Street (near Buffalo Street) and a new vehicular bridge that crosses over a former railroad bed. Both bridges provide safer, more direct and more visually appealing access to Lancer Park, which is home to more than 250 students.

Otis Brown, president of the Longwood Real Estate Foundation, said the project “represents the pulling together of the two campuses.” The bulk of the project was financed through savings from the low-interest rate on a bond consolidation of all three Longwood-managed apartment communities that the Real Estate Foundation negotiated in 2007.

Showing teachers how to use technology earns governor’s award for institute

A Governor’s Technology Award was accepted by (from left) Bill Wilson of the SVRTC, Dr. Mano Talaiver of the ITTIP, and Dr. Deneese Jones and Dr. Ken Perkins of Longwood.

Longwood’s Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices (ITTIP), with its partner the Southside Virginia Regional Technology Consortium (SVRTC), received a statewide technology award for its collaborative learning opportunities for teachers and students.

The ITTIP was one of two winners in the Innovation in Higher Education category in the Governor’s Technology Awards, presented Sept. 7, 2010, at the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Innovative Technology Symposium in Richmond. The award, presented by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, was based on the ITTIP’s and SVRTC’s ongoing work of implementing and demonstrating the effective use of a wide range of technology tools and applications. These include interactive videoconferencing; a videobridge to connect multiple points; webconferencing; virtualization, an open-classroom server for wiki; Moodle, an open-source content management system; and Elgg, an open-source social networking engine.

“With limited resources these days, collaboration is critical for successful implementation of programs,” said Dr. Manorama “Mano” Talaiver, ITTIP director.

Faculty analyze sales of homes located near sex offenders

A research paper that examined how the location of homes near registered sex offenders affects sales attracted widespread news coverage and attention from academic and professional organizations.

“Estimating the Effect of Crime Risk on Property Values and Time on Market: Evidence from Megan’s Law in Virginia” was the work of three faculty in the College of Business and Economics: Dr. Ray Brastow, professor of economics; Dr. Bennie Waller, associate professor of finance and real estate and chair of the Department of Accounting, Economics, Finance and Real Estate; and Dr. Scott Wentland, assistant professor of economics.

Based on an analysis of more than 20,000 real estate listings in central Virginia between 1999 and 2009, the paper appeared on the Social Science Research Network website and was presented at a national conference of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association. Coverage of the professors’ research included stories in the Washington Examiner and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and on WSET-TV in Lynchburg.

U.S. News, Forbes, Princeton Review recognize quality of Longwood education

Longwood was cited in three prestigious publications that were released in August 2010.

For the 13^th straight year, Longwood was ranked among the best in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report survey. The U.S News’ “America’s Best Colleges” report ranked Longwood  No. 9 in the category “Top Public Universities-Master’s” in the South. Among all Southern Universities-Master’s (public and private), Longwood remained within the top tier at  No. 27.

Longwood was again one of the best colleges and universities in the Southeast according to The Princeton Review. The education services company selected Longwood as one of 133 institutions it recommended in its “Best in the Southeast” section of its 2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region survey.

For the first time, Longwood was included as one of the best colleges in the United States in the annual survey published by Forbes magazine. The list of undergraduate institutions, compiled with research from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, is based on 11 factors measuring the quality of the education each school provides, the experiences of its students and the achievements of its graduates. Longwood was ranked 462 out of 610 colleges across the nation that made the list.