1999-2000: A Dynamic Year for the
Geography Department at CSULB
A Review by the Chair of the Department:
Dr. Joel Splansky
![[ Joel Splansky ]](http://www.csulb.edu/web/depts/geography/jpegs/JSchairmessage.jpg)
1999-2000: A Dynamic Year for theGeography Department at CSULBA Review by the Chair of the Department:Dr. Joel Splansky |
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July 1, 2000, marked the end of a productive and dynamic 12 months for the CSULB Geography Department. We fared well in the eyes of our colleagues, as a University departmental review committee concluded that the Geography Department's academic program was sound and current. More than 1500 students, including 70+ geography majors and more than 40 graduate students, enrolled in our classes and made progress toward completing degrees and certificate programs.
The Department's Internship Program, under the Direction of Professor Azary, will enter its fifth year of operation and receives more requests for interns than there are students seeking internship opportunities (most of them paid positions). Since Fall 1997, almost 60 different students have filled over 100 internship positions, 38 of them between Fall 1999 and Summer 2000.
The most dramatic transformation to occur within the Department has been among our faculty and staff. More personnel changes were experienced within the past year than in any year in memory!
Changes among the Faculty and Staff
Joel Splansky assumed the position of Chair of the Geography Department in August 1999 when Gary Peters completed his two year Department Chair position and relocated to Chico, California, where he joined the Department of Geography and Planning faculty at CSU Chico. According to an agreed-upon exchange plan, Professor Christine M. Rodrigue (Ph.D. Clark, 1987), formerly at CSU Chico, relocated to Southern California and joined the Geography Department faculty at CSULB. Professor Rodrigue's fields of expertise and interest are diverse and include quantitative methods, hazards and risk management, location analysis, and geographic methodology. Professor Rodrigue assumed the responsibility of serving as Webmaster for the CSULB Geography Department Web Site.
Professor Ben Wisner, Director of the International Studies Major and member of the Geography faculty for three years, resigned from his position at CSULB after having been away on leave for the 1999-2000 academic year. He is moving to Oberlin College in Ohio and is working on a number of projects for FEMA and the UN involving disaster management in complex urban areas.
Bill Biro, long-time lecturer and valuable member of the faculty, retired in June 1999. Recently married, Bill returned to his native Hungary to enjoy his retirement years. After 32 years of service, Professor Jean Wheeler announced her retirement from CSULB effective in July 2000. The Department will sorely miss Jean's many contributions to departmental and university affairs, her major rôle in support of geographic education and her excellent teaching in a wide array of courses, especially those classes that were identified as her specialties, including Biogeography, Pacific Island Area, U.S. and Canada, and California. Judith Tyner announced her plans to join Ed Karabenick and Molly Debysingh as Department participants in the University's early retirement program wherein they teach on a half-time basis. Molly teaches in fall semesters, Judy teaches in spring semesters, and Ed teaches half time each semester.
Robin Ikemi, who performed with excellence as Departmental Secretary for a decade, said good-bye in July 1999 to seek new challenges in another department. Lisa Mikhail succeeded Robin to become the Department's Administrative Support Coördinator.
Three new faculty were appointed over the course of the spring semester for the upcoming 2000-2001 year: Christopher Tom Lee comes to us from CSU Dominguez Hills with an outstanding record in remote sensing and GIS applications to fire hazard, arid lands geomorphology, and NASA Earth Science research; Suzanne Wechsler served our department this year as lecturer in GIS and has just now completed her Ph.D. in terrain modeling and spatial analysis of watersheds at SUNY, Syracuse; and Vincent Del Casino comes to us from the University of Lexington, Kentucky, where he is right now finishing up his Ph.D. on AIDS/HIV care in Thailand.
Research Activity
Many faculty and some students were actively engaged in scholarly and creative activity during the academic year. Professors Tyner, Azary, Curtis, Lee, and Del Casino had one or more papers or commentaries published or accepted for publication in professional journals and reports. Professors Rodrigue, Gossette, Tyner, Azary, Curtis, Del Casino, Wisner, and Lee attended one or more local, national, or international professional conferences, where they delivered papers, participated in poster sessions, and served as paper session chairs or discussants. Graduate student Ed Huefe attended the AAG meetings in Pittsburgh.
Graduate students Jan Olsen, Jim Covin, and Ed Huefe presented "Emergency Preparedness in Pedro" to city officials and interested citizens in March 2000. The content of the presentation appeared in local newspapers and is even now generating an improved framework for communication between residents and community-based organizations with governmental and non-governmental emergency management agencies.
Professor Gossette is currently directing several extramural contracts with local governments to provide GIS and GPS training and services and coördinating the GIS Certificate Program for the University College and Extension Services. He is also working with the CSULB President's Office on an enrollment management mapping project to "provide a visual representation of a proposed CSULB service area which maintains the university's ethnic, geographic, and academic program diversity while enrolling applicants who demonstrate the most potential for academic success." Geography majors and graduate students are employed on all these projects gaining valuable consulting and work experience.
Professor Tyner received an AAG research grant to support her research on the topic of "the Role of Women in Geography and Cartography in World War II." Jim Curtis and Irisita Azary were both successful in competing for University funding to support their research endeavors. Professor Curtis was awarded a summer stipend to carry on his Borderlands research project in the Summer of 2000, while Professor Azary was awarded three different grants to pursue her fluvial geomorphology research and two additional grants to support her programs of instructional innovation and related activities.
Benefactors
For a number of years, alumni and friends of the Geography Department have helped to support the Department's activities and its scholarship awards program through their donations. In gratitude for their generous donations during the 1999-2000 academic year, the Department wishes to thank Carol Austin, Robert Barone, Michael Bartling, Blair Brignall, Amy and Dennis Davis, Jerome and Valerie Diekmann, Brenda Dowell, Frank Gossette, Raymond Hetherington, Raymond Hiemstra, Timothy Holmes, Gretchen Honan, Felice L. Jabuka-Acosta, Eileen Jenkins, C. Andrea Karabenick, Edward and Florine Karabenick, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Kelsay, Paul Malkemus, Sue Malkeumus, Diana McCarthy, Ronald McCombs, Karen Beth Mittleman, Michele D. Murphy, Roderick J. Murphy, Barry Neel, Bob Pohl, Catherine Robley, Christine M. Rodrigue, Philip Ross, Diana Smith, Marlene Smith, Roland Smith, State Farm Companies Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Stiles, Judith Tyner, Jean Wheeler, James Woods, Nancy Yoho, and Steven Yoho. The Department also is grateful to Paul Malkemus, Neil Miller, and Rod Murphy for facilitating the donation of computer and digitizer equipment that now helps to support the department's instructional and research activities.
Speakers and Field Trips
As the academic year unfolded, the Department sponsored, organized or hosted various speakers and activities. In early November, the Department organized an all-day excursion by bus and car to visit the site of the Hector Mine Earthquake and the Pisgah Crater in the Mojave Desert. More than 60 students, faculty, and friends participated.
In mid-November we celebrated Geography Awareness Week when Arthur Getis, Professor and holder of the Birch Foundation Endowed Chair in Geographic Studies at San Diego State University, spoke on "Geographic Research in the Information Age" to an overflow crowd in the Soroptomist House. In late January, Christopher Tom Lee, Professor of Geography at CSU Dominguez Hills, presented an account of his most recent research experience in Egypt in an address titled, "Remote Sensing and Water Resources Development in Western Egypt's Coastal Plain."
Three visitors presented lectures to the Geography Department in early March. Suzanne Wechsler, then Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Syracuse, presented "Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Uncertainty: Evaluation and Effect on Topographic Parameters"; Jeremy Diem, Ph.D. candidate at Arizona, presented "A Space-Time Analysis of Air Pollution in the Tucson Region"; and John Michael Harrison, Professor of Geography at Southern Mississippi, lectured on "Fire-related Landscape Change Detection in the Humid Subtropics Using Remote Sensing: A Case Study in Florida."
In late March, four invited speakers addressed the Department on a variety of geographical topics, including Douglas Hurt, Ph.D. candidate at Oklahoma, who spoke on "The Shaping of a Creek (Muscogee) Nation Homeland in Indian Territory, 1828-1907"; Owen Dwyer, Ph.D. candidate at Kentucky, who lectured on "Monuments and Memorials Dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement"; Ralph Saunders, Lecturer at CSU Dominguez Hills, who spoke about "Community Policing and the (Other) New Urbanism"; and Vincent Del Casino, then Ph.D. candidate at Kentucky, who addressed the Department on the topic "Analyzing Need and Access: NGOs and the Geographies of Care for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Chiang Mai, Thailand."
In April we welcomed two visitors, Professor Norman Thrower of UCLA, who delivered a lecture on the "History of Cartography," and Professor Marlies Schulz of Humboldt University in Berlin, who addressed an audience on "Berlin: Departure from a Divided City. Recent Issues and Trends in urban Development."
May was also a very busy month as alumnus Kim Hatch spoke on "Quick Time Virtual Reality"; Daniel Weir, Ph.D. candidate in Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, informed the audience about "The Virgin of Guadalupe, the Everyday World, and Death on the Highway: A Poetics of Place in Mexico"; and Alan Jutzi, Curator of Maps at the Huntington Library, addressed a CSULB Geography student group who visited the Library on the topic "History of Cartography."
"Jobs in Geography" Speakers
In addition to presentations focused on research or specific geographic topics, Professor Azary organized a series of "Jobs in Geography" talks for her internship class that were presented by off-campus professionals. In 1999, Anne Obee (M.A., SDSU) of Information Technologies, Inc., in Newport Beach, spoke on job hunting strategies that make the most of Internet resources and about job prospects in GIS; Glenn Lajoie (M.A., CSULB), Director of Environmental Services at RBF & Associates of Irvine, spoke on the many opportunities for geographers in the environmental consulting field; and M.A. alumnus, Kurt Rhodenbach, GIS specialist at a private consulting firm, spoke to students about careers in the GIS field as well as his experiences working as a ranger for the National Park Service in Canyonlands, Utah. In Spring 2000, Gwendolyn Jones, an innovative master teacher associated with the Geographic Alliance, spoke about careers in teaching and integrating geographic themes in the curriculum. Dan Weir, currently a Ph.D candidate at Louisiana State University, addressed students on "Graduate Student for those interested in community college and university teaching, as well as for those working their way through our own graduate program or entering M.A. programs. Joe Mangiameli (CSULB alumnus and Manager of the City of Huntington Beach GIS Department) arranged for our students to participate in a tour of the GIS facility and presented an impressive demonstration of the city's GIS system.
Honors Banquet
In early May, the Geography Department and Geography Student Association hosted more than 60 students, faculty and friends at the Annual Evening Banquet at Sam's Seafood Restaurant in Huntington Beach. Dean Dorothy Abrahamse of the College of Liberal Arts (to which Geography belongs) offered welcoming remarks. After various speakers offered thanks to students, faculty, and friends who had contributed importantly to the Department during the year, soon-to-retire Jean Wheeler was well recognized and thanked for her contributions over 32 years. Departmental awards to students were announced. Larry Harlan was recognized as the Outstanding Graduate Student, and Patrick Johnson, the Department's nominee to the Graduate Dean's List of University Scholars and Artists, received the Department's Best Master's Thesis award. The thesis is titled, "Mapping Disrupted Surfaces in the Mojave Desert Using Remote Sensing and GIS, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California." Robert Michaels and Cameron Purcell were recognized as Distinguished Graduate Students in Geography, while K.C. Offenberg, Gabriel Sanfelice, Michelle Walsh, and Randy Wright were recognized as Meritorious Master's Students in Geography.
Among graduating seniors, Lenica Lundvall-Castner was named the Department's Outstanding Undergraduate Student, while Michael Fournier and Dennis Loven were recognized as Distinguished Undergraduate Students in Geography. The awards for Meritorious Undergraduate Student went to Richer Boudreau, Alexandra Dichter, Ryan Fennell, Maria Flores, Kasey King, Carolyn Kolb, Briget Lynch, Drew Marquis, Brian Sims, Ryan Stadlman, Dale Williams and Matt Yerxa.
Theses Completed
Nine graduate students completed master's degrees in 1999-2000:
Scholarship Recipients
Annually, the Geography Department bestows three scholarship awards to continuing students. After a careful review of the applicants, the Department determined that the following students be named recipients of the scholarship awards. The Burton Anderson Scholarship, in the amount of $300 each, was awarded to two recipients: Amy Eifler and Rhyetta Francisco. The newly formed Eileen Johansen Scholarship, in the amount of $400, was awarded to Mara Heikes. The Rodney Steiner Award, in the amount of $500, was conferred upon Joseph Recker.
Graduation Ceremony
The academic year closed with the Commencement 2000 Geography Department reception and gala College of Liberal Arts Commencement ceremony on May 25. We look forward to the new academic year!