Message from the Dean
Greetings from the ECU Graduate School. The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, and we continue to operate under unusual circumstances. Despite these challenges, our graduate programs continue to thrive, and our graduate students continue to excel. Our graduate enrollment remains robust, increasing from 5,033 students last fall to 5,185 this fall semester.
We are proud to recognize students who have completed their degrees this past summer, many who submitted and successfully defended their master’s theses (46) and doctoral dissertations (21). A few theses that caught our eye are featured later in this newsletter.
I had the pleasure recently of reading Danusha Laméris’ poem, “Small Kindnesses” and have reproduced it in this newsletter with the author’s permission. For me, it is an appropriate and heart-felt reminder that we should share small acts of kindnesses in our Pirate nation and our world. I encourage you to do the same as we not only cope but thrive during these difficult and sometimes stressful times.
Three Minute Thesis (3MT™)
Set aside your news fatigue for a few minutes and join us by celebrating ECU’s winners and six graduate student Three-Minute Thesis finalists. The finalists’ video presentations can be found at this link. This year we received 18 student submissions. This was our first adventure in holding an online 3MT event. The students were quick to adapt, and submitted outstanding videos to highlight their research. All competitor videos and slides are available here. We continued the tradition of having “celebrity” non-expert judges from the ECU and Greenville community help to select finalists and a Grand Champion.
Congratulations to Eshan Schleif, our Graduate Champion of this year’s 3MT™ Competition. She is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Our People’s Choice Award was given to Mariot Valcin, Jr., a master’s student in the Department of English. The Department of Biology won the Department Cup for having the highest 3 scores in the competition. We were excited to have over 400 people vote in our online “People’s Choice Award”. These graduate students and their online videos enabled more people to learn about the outstanding research conducted by graduate students across campus. Congratulations to all the participants and our sincere “Thank you” to the non-expert community judges of this event.
Did you know?...
The Graduate School Organization
For the benefit of our newer faculty who may not be aware, the governance of graduate education at ECU is documented in the Faculty Manual, Part II, Section IV, “Graduate School Organization”. My sincere “Thank you” to the graduate faculty for your work during these difficult times by pivoting to online teaching where necessary and by keeping ECU’s research, scholarship, and graduate education missions moving forward.
I am proud that we enjoy a respectful and cooperative working relationship with the Faculty Officers, Faculty Senate and its standing committees. The above section of the Faculty Manual defines the graduate faculty and their roles and responsibilities as well as the Graduate Council, the Graduate Curriculum Committee (GCC) and the roles and responsibilities of the Dean. Prof. Ron Preston chairs the Graduate Council and makes regular reports to the Faculty Senate. Prof. Patricia Fazzone chairs the GCC. Input from the faculty is always welcome, including suggestions for GC agenda items. These can be sent to Dr. Preston or to the Graduate School by yourself or through one of your college representatives. Your college representatives and faculty graduate program directors are engaged and passionate about graduate education. We look forward to continuing our great working relationships, partnerships and your support for graduate education.
Assistantship Budget News
I am happy to report that the Chancellor and senior administration at ECU is committed to protecting ECU’s graduate assistantship budget and tuition support budget in the 2021/2022 academic year. At this time of year I would normally be conducting the Graduate School’s data-intensive biennial assistantship budget reallocation process, but in light of all of the uncertainty and other budget related issues we are dealing with as a campus, I am suspending the reallocation process this year. College assistantships and tuition assistance budgets will remain the same as last year.
Reprinted with permission of the author (Danusha Laméris, Bonfire Opera, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020)
Danusha Laméris is poet laureate of Santa Cruz County, Calif.
New Graduate Certificate Dashboard
Nationally, graduate certificate programs are increasingly being used to impart specialized skills and as recruiting pathways into graduate degrees. At ECU, IPAR has created a powerful new dashboard for understanding how over 2,700 certificate completers in 70 graduate certificate programs have used a certificate to acquire specialized skills as a stand-alone program, to add skills with a concurrent degree, or as a pathway into a subsequent degree at ECU. I encourage you to browse this dashboard and think about how graduate certificates in your academic unit can be used to enhance your graduate recruitment and retention efforts. You will need your PirateID and password to view it (link to dashboard).
The Dashboard has three tabs. The first tab provides data on how many students completed each certificate program and whether they received another graduate degree concurrently or afterward. The top 10 certificate programs are shown in the visualization on the second tab. The third tab shows feeder certificate programs, i.e., certificates that feed students into subsequent graduate programs.
My thanks and kudos to our colleagues in IPAR who created this dashboard, including Drs. Ying Zhou, Dr. Kristen Springer-Dreyfus, and Dr. Cyndi Bellacero (data visualization team), Dr. Yihui Li, (programming and data analysis) and Greg Harris, Hokun Lee, and Scotty Stroup (secure accessibility for all ECU stakeholders).
Recent theses that caught our eye
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL SAFETY NET AT THE PITT COUNTY HOME
by Muriel Grubb, July 2020, Director of Thesis: Dr. Charles Ewen, Anthropology,
This thesis reports archeological work on the Pitt County Home on County Home Road, a “Poor Farm” which has largely been converted to city resources such as the Alice Keene Center, Gardening area, Wintergreen school, Farmer’s market, etc. While some level of “social services” were characterized in the Pitt County region since the early 1700’s, the home/poor farm began with a land purchase for the home in 1828, and within 20 years or so was visited by Dorthea Dix as mentally unstable patients were also kept there for a time.
Thermodynamic and Structural Characterization of Cd(II) binding to human cardiac troponin C: Using Mutants and Truncated Constructs to Elucidate Cd(II) binding sites
by Caitlin Diana Palmer, June 2020, Director of Thesis: Anne M. Spuches, Ph.D., Chemistry.
This thesis is creatively illustrated to effectively demonstrate binding of Cd(II) to the troponin C, an important question for human health. The work moves the science forward by providing the very likely location of a third binding site.
FORAMINIFERAL COMMUNITY DYNAMICS OF THE CHESAPEAKE GROUP, CALVERT CLIFFS, MARYLAND, USA
by Seth R. Sutton, July 2020, Directors of Thesis: Dr. Stephen Culver and Dr. David Mallinson, Geological Sciences.
Species assemblages of minute animals, foraminifer, or rather their “shells” are sampled and collected, representing a four-million-year period. This allows analysis of species diversity and has significant implications for climate change monitoring, as it provides indications of sea level change and major climatic events over those millions of years via the sampling.
BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A LATE BRONZE AGE SKELETAL ASSEMBLAGE FROM KATARET ES-SAMRA, JORDAN
by Michael P. Navarro, July 2020, Director of Thesis: Dr. Megan Perry, Anthropology.
This thesis is a careful and thorough analysis of the skeletal remains from two sites in Jordan, with the first ever Bioarcheological/anthropological analysis of these remains. These two burials occurred at an interesting time during the peak of Egyptian civilization, yet the sites retained semi-independence.
Colleen Roland, Student Services Specialist
- Email: ROLANDC@ecu.edu
- Phone: 252-328-1464
Colleen joined the university in the BSOM Medical Records office in 1996 and transferred to the Graduate School in the summer of 1998. She has served many roles while in the Graduate School, beginning as an application processor, receptionist, manager and her current position which spans duties in both the admissions area and working with enrolled students. She also serves as one of the university’s designated school officials (DSO), preparing and issuing immigration documents to admitted international students. Colleen’s work with enrolled students includes approving a variety of requests, reviewing academic performance and helping resolve student issues. She is married and has two middle school age children and enjoys boating, snow skiing and relaxing on the beach.
Plummer Nye, Technology Support Analyst
- Telephone: 252-737-2784
- Text: 252-251-0822
- Email: nyep@ecu.edu
Plummer began working at ECU in 2013 in Undergraduate Admissions. He Joined the Graduate School in the fall of 2018. Plummer provides support for the Graduate School’s many different hardware and software technology systems. Some of his areas of responsibility include graduate admissions, data analysis/student data reporting, web site development, Radius and AppReview support, management, and training. He constantly strives to improve efficiency in systems or procedures and automate tasks where possible. In his time away from the office, Plummer enjoys watching Pirate Baseball with his wife, spending time with his 2 granddaughters and sunny days at the beach.