Faculty & Students in The News

Dr. Robert A. McMullin, professor of hotel, restaurant and tourism management, attended the 2009 International CHRIE (Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education) Conference at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, Calif., July 29 – August 1, 2009. "Bridging The Visions of Hospitality and Tourism Education Worldwide" was this year’s theme. During the roundtable presentation, Dr. McMullin lectured with Joy Dickerson, Widener University. Their presentation was titled "The Field Experience Conundrum."

Dr. Rick Wesp, professor of psychology, and former ESU psychology students Joshua Sandry and Maryanne Kash presented a paper titled "Comparing Student and Faculty Beliefs About Appropriate Classroom Etiquette" at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Toronto from August 7 to 9. The paper described research that compared student and faculty views about classroom incivility, and was part of a symposium titled "Evidence-based Decisions Improve Psychology Education: Comparing Student and Faculty Perspectives" that was organized and chaired by Wesp.

The session also included papers by Elmira College Professor Robert Cavalier and Pepperdine University Professor Khahn Bui. Joshua Sandry graduated in 2007 and is currently a student in the doctoral program in psychology at New Mexico State University and Maryanne Kash graduated in 2009 and is currently employed at ESU as a secretary. With 150,000 members, APA is the world’s largest organization of psychologists. In addition, Wesp also attended the annual meeting of the Council of Undergraduate Psychology Programs, which was held concurrently with the APA convention. He serves as CUPP’s Secretary/Treasurer.

Also, Professor Wesp and three students appeared in a published article. The "American Journal of Psychology" published an article authored by Wesp and ESU graduates Joshua Sandry ’07, Anthony Prisco ’06, and Pam Sarte ’04. Sandry is currently a student in the doctoral program in psychology at New Mexico State University; Prisco has worked for a major pharmaceutical company, and resides in Sparta, N.J. Sarte subsequently completed a master’s degree, and returned to Stroudsburg to work for two local human service agencies.

The article recognized earlier research that showed that people think abstractly about future activities and as a result make poor decisions about engaging in them. In two experiments, Wesp, Sandry, Prisco and Sarte showed that by encouraging more concrete thoughts about the future, people have more realistic expectations, and thus might make better decisions. "The American Journal of Psychology" is a peer-reviewed journal that was founded in 1887.

Dr. Kimberly S. Adams, associate professor of political science, presented and served as chair of a panel at the National Social Science Association’s Summer Seminar, in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 2 to 5, 2009.

Adams’ gave a presentation titled "In Defense of the Apathetic Youth: Voter Turnout in the 2008 Primaries and Presidential Election," and served as chair of the panel titled "Society, Globalization and Political Science."

The presentation examined voter turnout and the impact of youth voters (18-29) historically and in the 2008 presidential primaries and general elections. Using statistics from the Pew Research Center (a reputable polling center that does research on religion, voting, etc.), and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the presentation explored the use and influence of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace as venues to recruit and appeal to youth voters. The 2008 election was recorded as the third-largest turnout among youth voters since their historic turnout in 1972, the first election that occurred after the passage of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18.

Dr. Heather Garrison, assistant professor of special education and rehabilitation, was invited to serve on the advisory board for the online Disability Studies Bibliography Project by the Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University in July. Garrison also reviewed content for the forthcoming 7th edition of the textbook, "The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education," published by Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Her participation in an online dialogue regarding the teaching of disability literature can be found at this link (http://www.wordgathering.com/issue9/interview/dialogue.html).

This past May, she presented, "Using Children’s Books with Positive Portrayals of Characters with Disabilities" at the annual Easter Seals of Eastern Pennsylvania conference. In June, Garrison also presented "The Children’s Hour" at the annual Society for Disability Studies conference in Tucson, Ariz.