Welcome to UDM Campus Connection!

May 19, 2005


Join the UDM community for a Motor City Makeover
The University of Detroit Mercy community is invited to participate in a Motor City Makeover this Saturday, May 21 from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Volunteers participating in the makeover, which is organized by Charley Jackson, Jr., coordinator of Government and Community Relations, in collaboration with the University Commons Organization and Northstar CDC, will clean up neighborhoods and areas near the McNichols Campus.

Volunteers will meet at 8:30 a.m. in front of the west entrance of Reno Hall on the McNichols Campus or at the Northstar CDC offices, located at 8300 Puritan, one block south of UDM and two blocks west of Livernois. Those meeting at Reno Hall prior to 8:30 a.m. will be shuttled to the Northstar CDC offices by Jackson.

For more details or to volunteer as a member of the UDM community, please contact Jackson by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 20, at 313.247.3402 or jacksoch@students.udmercy.edu.

Photo: UDM President Gerard L. Stockhausen, S.J., (left) joins students and staff assisting Northstar CDC in cleaning debris near neighborhoods and businesses on Livernois, McNichols and Puritan last September.

Commencement 2005 Photo Galleries
Photos from the University of Detroit Mercy McNichols Campus and School of Law Commencements are now online. Look for photos from School of Dentistry Commencement, taking place this Saturday, May 21, to be posted early next week.

UDM professors featured in film addressing spirituality and the meaning of life
UDM Professor of Business Administration Michael Whitty and Associate Professor of Physics Prasad Venugopal are featured in a new film about the meaning of life and how spirituality exists in our diverse world, mirroring UDM’s mission.

The documentary movie, O N E, features interviews with many local and national leaders including well-known spiritual leaders and authors such as Deepak Chopra, Father Thomas Keating and Robert Thurman.

This week, the local film opened in Southfield for a short run. Whitty has coordinated a University community screening on Friday morning in UDM's Commerce & Finance building, Room 134 at 9 a.m. The showing is free.

Oakland County Executive speaks to Business and Society Class
On Tuesday, May 17, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson spoke to Professor Mike Whitty’s Business and Society class about his efforts to promote his county to investors both at home and abroad. These efforts include Patterson’s plan to make Oakland County the first in the nation to offer free wireless Internet service to residents throughout its 910 square-mile area, which would give the county an unprecedented advantage in attracting high-tech firms.

Thumbs Up!
David Koukal, associate professor of Philosophy and director of the University Honors Program, presented "Dwelling in the Classroom/Learning at a Distance: A Heideggerian Investigation of Distance Learning" to the Seventh Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Media at Western Oregon University (Monmouth, OR), May 12-14.

Stephen Manning, associate professor of Political Science, chaired the panel, "Formal Theory and Institutions in the Postcommunist World," at the 63rd Annual National Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, held in Chicago, April 7-10.

Gail Presbey, associate professor of Philosophy, has spent this past semester in India on a Fulbright research grant. In March, Presbey participated on a Women’s Day panel discussion at the World Peace Center in Pun, India, and attended a two-day workshop on “Conflict Resolution: Principles, Practices, and Future” at the Peace Research Center in India. She also spoke about walking 100 miles for the 75th Anniversary of the 1930 Salt March to students attending Gandhi Summer Camp in April.

Stokes Baker, associate professor of Biology, has been awarded a three-year National Science Foundation Educational Materials Development Grant entitled, "Using Transgenic Plants that Express Green Fluorescent Protein in Teaching Quantitative Experimental Skills to First Year Undergraduates."

Campus Connection is available online at www.udmercy.edu/campus_connection. To submit news and information for publication in a future issue of Campus Connection, please visit www.udmercy.edu/campus_connection/forms/submit.jsp.

More University news and event information is available online at www.udmercy.edu/news_events/.