GSU finalists carry strong research credentials
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The weighty credentials of the two finalists read more like those of a candidate for top job at a prominent medical institution.
Instead the two are vying for the top spot at Georgia State University, Georgia’s largest urban research university.
On one CV: Adjunct professorship of pediatrics and orthopedics, expert on Medicaid and HMOs.
On the other: Consultant to the World Health Organization and author of a book on cancer epidemiology.
Academics Deborah Freund, an expert on health care, and Harris Pastides, an epidemiologist, compose the short list of candidates to replace GSU’s retiring leader, Carl Patton, who plans to leave office at the end of this month.
Both candidates have extensive experience in medical fields and both have been considered for college presidencies in the past.
The selection of finalists with such strong research portfolios was no accident, said Susan Herbst, the vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University System of Georgia, which oversees GSU and the 34 other public institutions in the state.
During Patton’s 16 years at the Georgia State helm, the onetime commuter school evolved into a destination university for undergraduates and graduate students, becoming a more traditional college campus with on-campus housing and, soon, even its own Division 1 football team. GSU is now looking to “move to the next level” in research, Herbst said.
The two candidates were pared from dozens of names in a monthslong process that isn’t over.
The search was narrowed to two after finalist Guy Bailey, the chancellor of the University of Missouri at Kansas city, pulled out late last week.
Regents policy requires that finalists be named 14 days before board members choose a new president — but there’s no rule governing how long the process can go past two weeks.

ajc.com

The Eagles, needing to split a doubleheader at Stetson to claim the outright A-Sun regular season championship, came up short in a pair of one-run games.
FGCU lost 1-0 in the opener and 4-3 in the nightcap. That left the Eagles relegated to a three-way tie with Lipscomb and South Carolina Upstate for the A-Sun crown.
For 11 consecutive innings, FGCU’s offense sputtered.
“We’ve seen good pitchers before. We weren’t batting the way we normally do,” said Jessica Gary, a Naples High School graduate who had three of the Eagles’ 10 hits on the night.
The Eagles (48-16, 16-6) stranded nine base runners in the first game and five in the second.
In the opener, Stetson (40-22, 13-8) scored the game’s lone run when Amanda Lindsey crushed a 1-0 pitch from Rachael Edinger (20-9) over the fence in left field.
Edinger, though, kept the Eagles in the game. She tossed a four-hitter, striking out six.
FGCU rallied in the seventh when freshman Courtney Platt, a Gulf Coast High graduate, pounded a one-out double against Stetson starter Erica Demers (18-9). Fellow Gulf Coast High grad Alisha Boyd drew a walk, and Gary slapped an infield single to load the bases. On Gary’s hit, Demers stabbed at the ball with her glove, knocking it down. The second baseman then fielded it, keeping Platt from scoring from third.
“I thought it was going through (to the outfield), but the pitcher made a nice play to save a run,” said Gary, who had two of the Eagles’ three hits in the opener.
Demers struck out Jessica Paez for the second out, and Stetson sealed the win when Carmen Paez, who leads the nation with 22 homers, flied out to right-center.
In the nightcap, FGCU’s offense caught fire. After 11 scoreless innings, the Eagles took a 3-0 lead in the fifth.

news-press.com

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― In all the excitement of March Madness and the NCAA Tournament, it’s easy to forget the athletes are supposed to be student-athletes. We know the win-loss record of every school, but what about the graduation rate?
Professor Richard Lapchick runs the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at University of Central Florida. He checked every team that made the tournament. Overall, 58 percent of the men’s basketball student-athletes graduate from those schools, according to the latest records available from the NCAA.
Forty-one schools (64 percent) graduated at least 50 percent of their basketball student-athletes. Twenty-two schools graduated at least 70 percent, according to the report.
“Most people don’t know how much work it takes to be an athlete,” said Dr. Lisa Nordeen, associate director of the Academic Counseling & Student Services program at the University of Minnesota.
“They might have a 5:30 or 6 a.m. wake-up and not get to bed by 11 or midnight by the time all their requirements are met,” said Nordeen.
In the case of team in the NCAA Tournament, she said “they might be traveling on Tuesday/Wednesday, and playing through Sunday. That means they’re in class only Monday or Tuesday of that week. It gets really, really tough” to keep up with schoolwork.
At the University of Minnesota, just 38 percent of its men’s basketball team graduates in six years. Nordeen’s program is trying to improve that number, by providing a place for students to get tutoring help, and encouraging coaches to set aside time during road trips for studying.
“They’ll set time when they need to pull their books out, sit down in a quiet area, study,” said Nordeen.
Although many students work part-time or full-time jobs, according to Nordeen, it’s different for student-athletes.
“You had choices, you could choose when you wanted to work. Our student athletes don’t really have a choice, it’s dictated from day one,” she said.

wcco.com

Syracuse University’s basketball team defeated Colgate 87-59 on Dec. 18 and then beat Cornell 80-64 on Dec. 22.
No surprise. SU coach Jim Boeheim is 44-0 lifetime vs. the Big Red (23-0) and the Raiders (21-0).
Who could have guessed then that Cornell and Colgate could be playing in the NCAA Tournament and SU would have to settle for the NIT?
Cornell already is in the NCAA Tournament by virtue of winning the Ivy League championship. Colgate also will be in the 65-team NCAA field if it can defeat American University today for the Patriot League championship.
For the record, SU hasn’t always dominated Colgate and Cornell; it only seems that way. Before SU’s current winning streaks against the two schools, it was 61-31 vs. the Big Red and 94-45 vs. the Raiders.
The Presidents’ Trophy goes to the NHL team that finishes the regular season with the most points in the standings. It was first awarded in 1986.
Barring a quick turnaround in the remaining 11 games, the Buffalo Sabres appear destined to join the 1992-93 New York Rangers as the only teams to fail to qualify for the playoffs the year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
Encouraging omen for next season’s Sabres: The 1993-94 Rangers bounced back to win the Stanly Cup.

read_more

INDIANAPOLIS — Somewhere else Saturday night, Memphis was playing Tennessee, which was great theater, if you’re into that No. 1 vs. No. 2 scene.
Here? Here was a game for university presidents, academic advisers and test proctors everywhere. Two Top 25 men’s basketball teams going at it, Drake vs. Butler, and you couldn’t tell the dean’s list students without a program.
The record will show that the winner was Drake, a 24-3 team with two former walk-ons and four honor roll students in the starting lineup.
The Bulldogs just edged Butler, a 25-3 team with five seniors in its top six, including three all-conference academic picks.
Yes, they’re highly ranked in all the major polls … USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches’, AP, GPA, SAT. “It’s one of the things,” Drake guard Adam Emmenecker said when it was over, “that makes us special.’
A close game, too. After 15 lead changes and 10 ties, Drake won 71-64, and if they had needed overtime, maybe they could have decided it with a spelling bee.
They both look like a pack of mischief-makers to me — meaning next month in the NCAA tournament. Beware the opponents who don’t take them seriously enough, deluded because they carry textbooks and not famous names.
Take Emmenecker. Nothing but trouble. He’s probably the only starting guard in America with more college majors (four) than career three-point attempts (three).
Or Butler forward Drew Streicher. Another suspicious character. He already has a chemistry degree and is headed for medical school, but he had to do something this year to stay eligible for basketball.
He’d never taken many business classes, but what the heck, why not get an MBA? How many other starting forwards on a top 10 team have a scoring average (4.1) nearly identical to his graduate school grade-point average (4.0)?
“It shows you can do both,” he was saying Saturday night of high-level basketball and high-level academics. ” It’s the way college basketball should be.”
So this was not the marquee matchup of the weekend. Priscilla Presley and Peyton Manning decided to take in Tennessee-Memphis. But for anyone who wonders if college sport can co-exist with academia, it was a highlight reel.
See the guard scoring 25 points for Drake? Josh Young. A 4.0 prep student who was listed in Who’s Who Among American High School Students.
Notice the alley-oop slam by the 6-3 Drake player that any SportsCenter would be proud to show? Leonard Houston, double major and recipient of a major academic scholarship from the College of Business and Public Administration.
They helped overcome the 18 Butler points by A.J. Graves, the actuarial major with a 3.3 GPA.
Drake is rewriting its history with one unlikely item after another. The Bulldogs have not been to the NCAA tournament since 1971, had not beaten a ranked non-conference opponent in 27 years before Saturday and will have only its second winning record in 21 seasons. They were picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I think we’ve been surprising (people) pretty much every game,” coach Keno Davis said.
But how? Young sees intelligence as a major weapon and a reason Drake survives most of its close finishes.
“When it gets late in games, and we’ve got to be smart with the ball, that’s when it helps, our academics and our wits,” he said.
So they roll onward, Drake and Butler, on basketball ability but also brain power. There is wisdom in having been around awhile, since the lure of quick entry to the NBA draft never ransacked these rosters. College basketball is not a quick layover hub. It is a special place, and that is one reason they play so well. Seven seniors started Saturday.
“They look at games like we look at games,” Butler’s Graves said of Drake. “They’re opportunities.”
And when it ends next month, they will appreciate the ride of having been among the finest teams in the nation. But then they will have other things to do.
“Something we talk about is the fact that even if our basketball careers don’t continue, we’re going to be successful regardless,” Emmenecker said. “I think it’s really the story of what a student-athlete actually is. This is what the NCAA is all about.”
You mean it’s not an office pool?

usatoday.com