NEWS - Texas Southern University

N E W S & N O T E S C O N T D .State University in Arkadelphia, Ark.Moreover, he served on the panel “Given ThreeWishes, What Would You Change About YourRole as a Musician/Teacher in Academe, inYour Community, and in American Society?”,which was presented at the meeting.Dr. Oscar Criner, professor of computerscience and physics, delivered a series of lecturesMarch 3-4 as part of the Cordell HullSpeaker’s Forum at the Cumberland Schoolof Law at Samford University in Birmingham,Ala. Criner’s keynote speech, an analysis of thejudicial process from a juror’s perspective, wastitled “Who is Proving What to Whom?”Drs. Yuanjian Deng and John Sapp, professorsof chemistry, took a group of TSU scienceand math students to the 107 th annual meetingof the Texas Academy of Science, held March4-6 at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.At the conference, 20 science students and fourmathematics students presented their researchto more than 400 attendees.Dr. Nathaniel Dean, professor of mathematics,gave a talk on data mining March 4 atTrinity University in San Antonio. His lecture,titled “Data Mining and Visualization for Life,”presented an overview of data mining and visualizationand the tools necessary for analyzinginformation.Dr. Merline Pitre, dean of the College ofLiberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences, presidedover a meeting to discuss African-Americanwomen of Texas at the Texas State HistoricalAssociation, March 5. Five days later, she presenteda lecture on Lulu White, a teacher andcivil rights activist, at Texas A&M University atGalveston.Thomas V. Green Jr., an employee fromNASA headquarters in Washington, D. C.,arrived on campus at the end of February andwill take up residence on campus through mid-August 2004 to facilitate expanding TSU primeand subcontracting opportunities with NASAand other federal government agencies. Greenhas 30 years of diverse government experiencein procurement and contracting, having spentthe preceding 10 years as the special assistantfor procurement in NASA’s Office of Small andDisadvantaged Business Utilization.On campus February 26 as part of TexasSouthern’s NASA Awareness Day, astronautLeland Nelson addressed students from Xavier,Southern, Southern-New Orleans, PrairieView A&M and Jackson State University, allof whom had descended on TSU’s campusFebruary 25-27 to explore career, education andresearch prospects at the premiere aeronauticsand space foundation. The group – which wascomprised mostly of engineering, math, scienceand pharmacy majors – proved eager to hearabout opportunities at Johnson Space Center.The event continued after lunch with a studentposter session in the University Museum. Thefollowing day focused on NASA employmentvacancies and internships, and featured a seriesof simultaneous roundtable discussions on topicssuch as the transition from grant to contractopportunities and fellowship opportunities forstudents and faculty.Against the backdrop of two recognizedexhibits – Spider Martin’s “Selma toMontgomery, A March for the Right toVote,” and Alonzo Jordan’s “Images ofJasper: 1943-1983” – the University Museumhosted a roundtable discussion March 3 to discussthe Civil Rights Movement. Dr. MerlinePitre, dean of the College of Liberal Arts andBehavioral Sciences; TSU history professor Dr.Cary Wintz; Frank Torry, KTSU commentatorand community historian; and Dr. HowardJones, history professor at Prairie View A&M,participated; Dr. Alvia Wardlaw, director ofthe University Museum, moderated the discussion.Panelists remembered the atrocities ofMarch 7, 1965, when Alabama state troopersmet civil rights demonstrators with beatingsand teargas just after they crossed the EdmundPettus Bridge out of Selma, and discussed thecountry’s reaction to what became knownas “Bloody Sunday.” The roundtable endedwith questions from audience members and adialogue on the importance of the civil rightsstruggle to younger generations.GENERATIONS OF PRIDE • Summer 2004 39