AUGUST 2000

COMPRESSION

Champion researchers

The winners of Florida State's Online Scholar Challenge this year are the twin sons of the police chief of Titusville, Fla.
Michael Scragg and Matthew Scragg, seniors at Titusville High School, each won a four-year tuition-paid scholarship to Florida State and other prizes.
The Challenge ­ a nationwide online information scavenger hunt ­ requires teams of high school juniors and seniors to answer tough questions on varied topics through LEXIS®-NEXIS® Scholastic Uni-verse, a new Web-based information service tailored for students.
The Scraggs team beat out four other finalist teams from all over the country.

To flee or stay

An FSU geographer is warning people who live near coasts that the decision to evacuate, when it's not necessary, can be almost as bad as the decision to stay when they need to leave.
"Some people who should hear evacuation orders don't," said Associate Professor Earl J. Baker. "Some people think they've been told (to evacuate) when they were not."
He said that people in no danger often join a "shadow evacuation," adding to the traffic and slowing down the necessary evacuation.
Baker has joined other experts who advise officials and emergency specialists to be very clear about who is in danger when a storm comes and who is not.

White House intern

FSU senior Josh Doyle has spent his summer working as an intern in the White House, where he was assigned to the Department of Legislative Affairs, the President's lobbying team.
Some of his everyday duties include answering phones, copying, faxing and running errands. He works from 8:45 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. with no lunch breaks.
Doyle, a communication major, was the first non-law student to intern at the Florida Supreme Court, and last summer he interned at U.S. Senator Bob Graham's Tallahassee office.
Doyle expects to graduate from FSU in December and hopes to eventually attend law school.

Honor for most winning coach

The state Legislature and the governor of Florida have decided to name FSU's football field after Bobby Bowden, but the change isn't official until the day after Bowden retires.
The bill naming the field for Bowden was sponsored by the late Sen. Pat Thomas, a Quincy Democrat who helped recruit Bowden more than 20 years ago.
"We come here to ask you to honor the most winning football coach in the country," Thomas told the Senate Education committee during the 2000 session.
Bowden, 70, has said he has no plans to quit anytime soon.
He is under contract through the 2003 season.
The change will not affect the name of the 80,000-seat stadium, which will remain Doak Campbell after the former university president.

Money-raising talent

Paula Fortunas, vice president for planned giving at the FSU Foundation, has received a national award for lifetime achievement among development professionals.
"Paula has spent her entire career here at the foundation, and her presence has made a huge difference to the university and to our donors," said Foundation President Jeff Robison, who nominated her for the Quarter-Century Award given by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Fortunas began her career at the Foundation in 1964 as a student assistant, later worked as a graduate assistant, and eventually joined the full-time staff as business manager. In 1975, she was named director of finance and accounting, and in 1987 became vice president for planned giving.

A great teacher

Florida High School's Debi Barrett-Hayes is one of only 40 teachers selected since 1989 for the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Barrett-Hayes is chair of the school's visual arts department.

Endowment Growth

Endowed funds at Florida State have ballooned to more than $287.4 million, boosted by a strong stock market and record giving levels.
FSU's endowment was recently ranked 150th in the nation, based on an annual endowment survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The survey rankings show higher-education money-raising success.
FSU's endowment ranked 27 places higher than last year's ranking of 177, and since 1994 has surpassed 156 other institutions. "This kind of endowment growth is phenomenal," said FSU Foundation Chairman Cliff Hinkle.
"FSU has received several multimillion dollar gifts in the last few years, and that's made a huge difference, but we know the average person isn't wealthy enough to give us $1 million," said Foundation President Jeff Robison. "People ask if their small gifts make a difference. They absolutely do. Any time you have 20,000 people writing checks, it creates an impact."

Men and toys

Men have a strong fascination with toys, says Mary Hicks, director of marriage and family at Florida State University.
Hicks was responding to a survey by Continental Tires that showed that when men were asked what toy they treasure most, golf clubs were the clear winner, pulling in 30 percent of votes, with fast cars second at 27 percent.
"Once they reach manhood, these materialistic items such as golf clubs or fast cars are simply an extension of that childhood fascination."
"Studies have shown that in American homes, young boys have always had more toys than little girls," she added.
According to Hicks, the gender survey suggests that although society and male gender roles are changing, men's strong fascination for toys will remain the same.

Lame ducks

New research at Florida State and the University of Rochester suggests that term limits make lame-duck shirkers of many elected officials.
Political scientists Mitchell Sanders of FSU and Lawrence Rothenberg of the University of Rochester say they've seen evidence that members of Congress slack off after they've decided not to run again, seek other offices or have been defeated for re-election.
Sanders and Rothenberg found that departing lawmakers were four times as likely to miss roll call votes as lawmakers who were coming back. They didn't show up for about one out of every six ballots; those busy running for some other office were absent even more often.
The average member seeking re-election, they report, misses only about one out of every 25 roll call votes.
The lame ducks also altered the way they voted. Some occasionally took more conservative positions on issues; others tilted more to the left.
The effect was more pronounced among moderates.
The researchers suggest that outgoing legislators "take advantage of freedom from electoral constraints." So, the professors speculate, two possibilities arise: Some legislators actually may be voting their consciences in their last days in Washington. Or they may be currying favor with prospective employers by casting the "right" votes before they leave office.

Literary Prize

Janet Burroway, a novelist and FSU English professor, has won a writing prize from The Prairie Schooner, the literary magazine of the University of Nebraska.
The $1,000 Lawrence Found-ation Award for best short story was for her story "Deconstruct-ion," published in the winter issue.

Academic leadership

Florida State has filled several top administrative positions:
·Donald J. Weidner, interim dean of the Florida State University College of Law, has been named permanent dean.
·Marie E. Cowart, Florida State professor of urban and regional planning, is the new dean of the College of Social Sciences.
·Raymond E. Bye is vice president for research.
·John J. Deal, assistant dean for academic affairs in the FSU School of Music, will be the acting dean of the School of Theatre.
·Dianne Montgomery, FSU social work dean, takes the newly created post of associate vice president for academic affairs.

Send a letter to the Editor:fstimes@unicomm.fsu.edu

Copyright ©2000 Florida State Times