Ingle receives Grace Palmer Humanitarian Award
Coastal President Ronald R. Ingle received the Grace Palmer Human-itarian Award earlier this year from the Action Council for Cross Cultural Mental Health and Human Services, a statewide organization devoted to multicultural educational training and development. The award is named for the late Grace Palmer, a Columbia educator who was active in promoting the arts, social progress and religious faith. The award is given annually as part of the Cross Cultural Conference for Mental Health and Human Services, which was held in Myrtle Beach earlier in 2003.

Ronald R. Ingle

Ingle has served as president of Coastal since 1993 when the institution became an independent public university. He has been instrumental in the development of many strategic partnerships which have strengthened the university’s long tradition of cultural diversity and collaboration within the community. Ingle spearheaded the visit of the Freedom Schooner Amistad to Georgetown in the fall of 2001, an event that engaged the entire community in a series of dialogues about racial diversity and reconciliation. He is a founding leader of the North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA), a 10-county economic development initiative anchored by Coastal and Francis Marion University that seeks to address urgent social and economic disparities among the 10 northeast South Carolina counties.

Born in Moncks Corner, Ingle earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Wofford College in 1962 and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Florida State University in 1963. After a tour of active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966, he earned a doctorate in psychology from Ohio State University in 1972.

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Loftus leads Center for Economic and
Community Development
Area tourism leader Gary M. Loftus is now serving as director of Coastal’s Center for Economic and Community Development. Housed in the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, the center serves as a bridge between the university and the business community, sponsoring applied research for local business and governmental agencies as well as other projects relating to economy and business.

Gary M. Loftus

Loftus is chairman of the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association and the Road Improvement and Development Effort (R.I.D.E.). He also serves on the board of directors of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, the South Carolina Hotel-Motel Association, Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and the City of Myrtle Beach Tourism Committee. From 1974 to 2002, he was general manager of the Bar Harbor Motor Inn in Myrtle Beach. He is president of G & K Management, Inc., a Surfside Beach management and consulting firm.

“We are very fortunate to have someone with Gary’s vast experience and considerable expertise at the helm of the Center for Economic and Community Development,” said David DeCenzo, dean of the Wall College of Business Administration. “A major facet of the center’s mission is to interact with the surrounding community, involving faculty and students in projects with practical applications which benefit area businesses and organizations. Gary’s extensive background in the private and public sectors at both the local and state levels will enable him to lead the center to new levels of excellence.”

Loftus has been the recipient of the Order of the Palmetto (1997), the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Award (1998) and the South Carolina Hotelier of the Year Award (1995-1996).

The Horry County Higher Education Commission created the Center for Economic and Community Development in 1988 to conduct applied research and offer special services that are relevant to the needs of the region. Under the guidance of an advisory board of local business leaders, the center has conducted many research projects through the years including numerous surveys, assessments, feasibility studies and impact studies.

Since joining the staff, Loftus has worked closely with Taylor Damonte, associate professor of marketing and the director of Coastal’s resort tourism management program, in developing a comprehensive tourism data collection and analysis project for the Grand Strand. With the cooperation of area businesses, Loftus and Damonte have devised a statistical method that will provide a significantly more accurate picture of the region’s tourism industry than has been available before. (See page 23.)

Barr says that the time he spent recently working in the private sector has allowed him to return to Coastal with a finer perspective on higher education as it relates to the world at large. "It gives you the opportunity to test what you've been teaching, as well as to bring new knowledge and information back into the curriculum," says Barr. "I think I have a much keener sense of how critical the information is that we are imparting to our students, not only in terms of content but also in terms of application."

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New VP for Student Affairs named
Lynn Willett began her duties as Coastal’s new vice president for Student Affairs on July 21. She replaces Robert Squatriglia, who retired June 30 from the position he held since 1977.

Lynn Willett

“I’m excited to join the students, faculty and staff at Coastal,” said Willett. “The campus already offers some wonderful opportunities for students, and I look forward to working with student leaders and new colleagues to build on and expand those opportunities.”

Willett comes to Coastal from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, where she served as vice president for Student Affairs since 1990. Her responsibilities as Coastal’s chief Student Affairs officer will encompass all the university’s student-related services, programs and activities, including the residence halls, student government, multicultural affairs, Greek life, career services and intramurals.

At Bridgewater, Willett led a division of 14 departments and 185 staff members who serve a student population of more than 9,000. Prior to joining Bridgewater, she was dean of students at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She has also served as staff assistant to the vice provost for Student Affairs at Ohio State University and residential life coordinator at the University of Vermont. She is a past president of the Association of College Personnel Administrators (ACPA).

“Dr. Willett has a broad range of experience in developing programs that lead to student achievement inside and outside the classroom,” said President Ron Ingle.

Willett earned a bachelor’s degree in English and speech and a master’s degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She earned a Ph.D. in educational administration from Ohio State University in 1983.

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Art professor elected to national arts board
Charles Wright, associate professor of art and chairman of Coastal’s Department of Visual Arts, has been elected to serve a three-year term on the board of directors of the National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA).

Charles Wright

NCAA provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, the identification of problems and the generation of shared solutions to the issues that confront visual arts administrators in higher education. The council comprises visual arts professionals from schools, colleges and universities throughout the country. Membership is open to department chairs, deans, directors and presidents of art schools, directors of university-affiliated museums and other positions in the visual arts in higher education.

“Over the years, my involvement with NCAA has shown me that all art programs in higher education, no matter how large or small the institution, are dealing with similar issues,” said Wright. “Funding, facilities and how to effectively address the digital revolution in the arts are shared concerns in art schools across the nation.”

As a newly elected member, Wright will have the option of hosting a future annual conference at Coastal. As the conferences are planned three years ahead, a conference could come to Coastal in 2006, Wright said.

A native of Conway, Wright earned a bachelor’s degree from Kent State, a master’s of fine arts degree in sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis. While studying at Washington University, he worked on a major commission for the city of New Orleans with award-winning sculptor Gyuri Hollosy, and was later commissioned to create a piece of steel sculpture for art collections in the city of St. Louis. His work has appeared in a number of exhibitions from the East Coast to the Midwest. Wright joined the Coastal faculty in 1985. Coastal’s Department of Art was accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) in 2001.

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‘Being American’ series strikes chord in community
In a season that included many rumors of wars followed by the real thing, a timely series of public discussion events called “On Being American: A Community Dialogue” was presented by the Board of Visitors of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Three separate forums, held at the Waccamaw Public Library, attracted capacity crowds of area citizens eager to explore what it means to be an American. The topic was addressed from several perspectives by faculty members David Bankston, Lynn Franken, Pamela Martin, Jo-Ann Morgan, “Wink” Prince, Nils Rauhut, Nelljean Rice and Jack Riley.

An upcoming On Being American session, “Censorship and Freedom,” is being planned for the spring semester.

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Just horsin’ around: Equine artists have Coastal connections
Hot Rod Horse. The Clothes Horse. Mare-y Christmas. Night Mare. They’re just a few of the 50 imaginatively-conceived and brightly-painted horses prancing around the Grand Strand this year.

Jo-Ann Morgan and her Hot Rod Horse

Carousel Horses on Parade is a fundraiser (a lá the Chicago cows) for the cultural arts advisory committee of the City of Myrtle Beach. The group has been raising money to transform the old Rivoli Theater into a performing arts venue.

Several of the horses, which made their debut in the 2003 Sun Fun Parade, have ties to Coastal Carolina University artists. Art professor Jo-Ann Morgan painted her Hot Rod Horse black with bright red flames licking up his legs and haunches. The design was a trial run for the 1978 El Camino she drives. “I wanted to see what it looks like on the horse first,” she says.

Morgan was one of 50 artists selected to paint the horses, which were displayed at sponsoring businesses or organizations in the area so that people could enjoy them. On Sept. 20, they were auctioned off to the highest bidders.

In addition to the art instructor, other equine artists with Coastal connections include alumni Ruth Chestnut Cox ’63, Sudie Payne Dave ’94, and Charlene Winkler ’79 and ’01. Wrinkler, curator of Brookgreen Gardens’ annual carousel exhibit, gave her horse, Brave’s Pride, a jaunty look with wild turkey and guinea feathers; art major Jenny Lane’s horse sported a seaside motif; and art student and portrait artist Linda Weatherspoon’s patriotic horse boasted a glittery coat. Charles Singleton, class of 1993, painted a pirate horse called Jolly Roger complete with skull and cross bones on its chest and a pirate ship on its flanks. “It’s not quite like anybody else’s,” he said with obvious pride.

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Coastal establishes partnerships with three Russian universities
Coastal has entered into agreements with three universities in Moscow, Russia, initiating the development of a number of academic and cultural exchange programs. These agreements mark the first such association between the university and institutions of higher education in Russia.

The three universities with which Coastal has established relationships are Moscow State Open Pedagogical University, Moscow State Social University, and the Institute of Market Infrastructure of the Plekhanov State Academy of Economics.

Dennis Wiseman, associate provost for academics at Coastal, and Darla Domke-Damonte, director of international programs for Coastal’s E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, met in Moscow with representatives of each institution earlier this year to outline the goals of the respective programs.

“These educational institutions in Russia are very interested in partnerships with Western universities,” said Wiseman. “Each of the three universities has a different academic focus, and we found several areas of mutual interest that will benefit Coastal and help the Russian universities further their goals.”

“Russia has entered a new phase of social and economic development, and these three academic institutions are each taking very proactive approaches to broaden the depth and reach of their educational initiatives in response to market realities,” Domke-Damonte said. “It will be both a privilege and a challenge for Coastal to be a part of this dynamic process.”

Coastal and Moscow State Open Pedagogical University are looking into developing a program allowing Russian students to complete a bachelor’s degree in Moscow and then build on that degree to complete a second bachelor’s degree at Coastal. Tentative plans call for a Coastal faculty member (or members) to travel to Moscow each May to lead a summer program designed to help orient the Russian students in American education methods and language. The first such program will probably be held in May 2004, with Russian students arriving at Coastal for the fall 2004 semester.

Moscow State Social University is interested in developing exchange programs focusing on aging and gender studies, cooperative research in social education, and preparing managers for employment in the social sector, including tourism. These are natural areas for collaboration with Coastal, with its baccalaureate degree in resort tourism management and its gerontology certificate. Additional programs are sponsored through Coastal’s Center for the Study of Aging and Active Retirement and the Clay D. Brittain Center for Resort Tourism.

Coastal will work with the Institute of Market Infrastructure of the Plekhanov State Academy of Economics to create an advanced training program in appraising that will apply to real estate as well as intellectual property.

These programs will provide numerous opportunities for student/faculty exchanges, creating new cross-cultural advantages for Coastal and the Russian institutions, according to Wiseman.

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Chanticleer Band marching in style
What is loud, wears a spiffy, black, white and teal uniform reminiscent of Star Trek, and spends the summer working on precision marching and perfecting a brassy, energetic sound?

Ryan Bailey, first Coastal Carolina University drum major

It’s the Spirit of the Chanticleer marching band, which is coming along nicely for a startup organization. The band has 65 members, including a drum major, a feature twirler, a drum corps, a band director, an assistant director and futuristic new uniforms complete with feather-plumed hats.

The uniforms are designed to impress. Black and white jackets have a teal-striped sash from shoulder to waist, and the Coastal logo is emblazoned on the left breast. A traditional chinstrap hat has an iridescent feather plume that picks up the teal tones in the light, and elbow-length flared black gloves complete the striking ensemble. The pants are black with straight legs. Drum Major Ryan Bailey wears the same outfit, but with a teal sequined sash and white pants.
Jim Tully, band director and assistant music professor, played the trumpet in the West Virginia University marching band and still savors the memories.

“It was the most exciting experience I’ve ever had in band,” says the high-energy director. “I was able to travel to a lot of places I never would have gone to otherwise.”

He has spent a lot of time recruiting for the new marching band, with trips as far afield as West Virginia (he was there guest conducting), but also to Wilmington, Hartsville, Charleston and Georgetown.

In fact, the only thing lacking so far is French horns, an instrument so difficult to play that even professional orchestras have trouble locating players. “We just need to fill out some of our sections, but we’re getting there,” Tully says.

Of the nearly 20 colleges and universities in South Carolina with music programs, only half have a full marching band, says Tully, who scheduled the band to perform in the Main Street parade at Disney World and other venues as well as Coastal’s football stadium. The Coastal marching band has performed during pre-game and halftime festivities at home games and traveled to one away game.

Regardless of where they perform, the Spirit of the Chanticleer marching band will look good whether on the field or marching down the street.

“We didn’t want to be a bunch of guys in Hawaiian shirts and shorts; we wanted to look like a real marching band,” says Tully, who calls himself “a traditional guy” when it comes to marching band uniforms. “I wanted the uniforms to be classy and sophisticated. If it was up to me, I’d have them in West Point uniforms.”

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Limit placed on freshmen enrollment for fall
For the first time, Coastal administrators decided to limit the number of freshmen to be admitted into the university.

Faced with the prospect of overcrowded classrooms and stretched resources, administrators decided to limit freshman admissions offers after June 30, 2003, only to qualified applicants from the immediate area. All other applicants may be considered for spring or fall 2004 admission.

The decision was made in response to the unprecedented number of applications received by the university. By mid-June Coastal had received more than 4,700 applications for 1,300 available slots. Freshman admissions for the fall 2003 semester were up more than 21 percent over fall 2002.

The fall enrollment of more than 6,700 students is the largest in the university’s history.

“Record enrollment is a good problem to have, but we must make sure we don’t compromise on the quality of the education our students receive,” said President Ingle.

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First Community Spring Festival focuses on children
The day started out overcast and threatening rain, but it didn’t dampen the Community Spring Festival. The first-ever event, sponsored by the College of Education, hosted some 1,000 children and parents in a fun-filled day of frolic on the Coastal campus.

Kid Power: More than 1,000 area children participated in the College of Education’s first Community Spring Festival.

Once the sun came out, and it did, the late spring event was a much needed respite from the grey, chilly days of winter. The kids enjoyed the booths with hair braiding and face-painting, and the Coastal football players were a big hit with the younger set. The “Whopper Hopper,” one of those inflated things that kids jump around in, was good for releasing all that pent-up energy, and the adults had a great time bidding in the silent auction for such items as golf packages, dinners for two and so on.

The festival was designed to bring children and families to campus for activities that combined learning and entertainment. Other festival activities included sport clinics, a children’s concert, health and fitness seminars and penny-carnival activities for children of all ages.

Coastal students in the College of Education submitted proposals for activities, which were then selected by a faculty committee. Proceeds benefited the College of Education student organizations’ community service and outreach projects, a scholarship fund, and faculty research and teaching initiatives.

Coastal’s Celebration of Inquiry slated for Feb. 11-13, 2004
Coastal Carolina University will host its third Celebration of Inquiry, a university-wide academic conference designed to unite the learning community in cross-disciplinary discussion of a common theme, from Feb. 11 to 13, 2004.

The conference will feature internationally renowned futurist/ inventor Ray Kurzweil as the keynote speaker. He will appear live through teleportation, which enables people to appear live, life-sized within an apparent 3-D environment in a remote location and achieve eye-to-eye contact with all participants.

This year’s conference theme is “Seeing the World Anew,” from the Albert Einstein quote: “No problem can ever be solved by the consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.” Conference sessions will explore the theories, technologies and connections that have helped people to see the world in new ways. Systems thinking, multiple intelligences and other diverse topics will be considered during the three-day conference.

Coastal students, faculty and staff as well as community leaders and educators will offer numerous sessions on a wide range of topics. All conference sessions are free and open to the public. On Feb. 12 and 13 all Coastal classes will be re-directed to conference sessions. Many Coastal students will be involved as presenters in the sessions which will include workshops, performances, panel discussions, lectures and other interactive formats to promote inquiry.

The conference will begin with an opening address by Kurzweil, whose recent bestselling book, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, has received widespread acclaim and has been published in nine languages. He is internationally regarded as one of the leading inventors of our time, and a highly sought speaker at leading venues. His presentations combine wit and in- sight into contemporary issues of technology and its impact on society.

Kurzweil was the principal inventor of the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR), the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestra instruments, and the first commercially marketed, large-vocabulary speech recognition.

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Coastal hosts history society regional conference
For the first time, Coastal hosted the annual regional conference of Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for history students, in April 2003.

Seventeen colleges and universities in the Carolinas (plus one middle school) participated in the event, and 40 student papers were presented. Ten Coastal faculty members served as judges.

Papers were presented by the following Coastal students: Frank Ardo, Brandie Carlucci, Derrick Ebbit, Brad Hensell, Brandon Hooks, Seth Morrow, Jason Schipper, Charles Sena, Jeremy Todd and Rebecca Wright. Sixteen other Coastal students served as moderators, and 13 more worked behind the scenes as conference staff members.

As an added attraction, the event’s pièce de résistance was a lecture/ concert of Civil War keyboard music performed by Professor David Thompson of Limestone College.

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Grads come in all age, sizes, colors – and with personal ads
Not all of the 624 candidates for graduation from Coastal Carolina University were 20-somethings who bounced across the wooden stage in the broiling sun at the May 10 commencement at Coastal Federal Field in Myrtle Beach. Peggy Dupont, a self-described “older grad,” had a slower, more painstaking journey—with the help of a walker and a portable oxygen tank—to get to President Ron Ingle. But she wouldn’t have missed the moment for the world. Her class gave the Georgetown woman, who majored in international studies, a standing ovation.

It was a momentous occasion for Dupont and for all the graduating seniors surrounded by beaming family members armed with digital recording devices. Gerry Hetrick, a marketing major, put his expertise to work early by creating an extra-large mortarboard top that read, “Your Ad Here” with a dollar sign. Three coeds in the back of the seating area shucked their hot, black gowns in favor of spaghetti-strapped tops and shared a one-word exclamation between their three mortarboards—FI-NAL-LY! The rest were just happy to be there at all.

Bob Squatriglia, retiring vice president of student affairs, delivered the commencement address, asking students to consider a life of service to their community.

“Problems in our society are numerous and matched only by the opportunities for service. Live beyond and outside yourself,” he told them.

David Drayton of Georgetown was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters, and the late Ashby Ward, who died three weeks before the ceremony, was awarded a posthumous honorary degree in public service.

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Honorary founders named for 2003
Col. William J. Baxley Jr., Dr. Hal B. Holmes Jr. and Mildred Holmes Allen Prince were honored at Coastal Carolina University’s 17th annual Founders’ Day Convocation on Sept. 22 in Wheelwright Auditorium.

Col. William J. Baxley Jr.

Dr. Hal B. Holmes Jr.

Holmes has been involved in the governance of Coastal Carolina University since 1982, when he was named to the Horry County Higher Education Commission. Holmes served as chair of the commission from 1985 to 1987. He has been a member of the Coastal Educational Foundation since 1987 and was president from 1993 to 1996. He served on Coastal’s Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2003. A native of Conway, Holmes graduated from The Citadel in 1966 and from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1971. After service on the U.S.S. Forrestal and at the U.S. Navy Hospital in Beaufort, he entered private practice in general surgery in Conway. He has been a member of the Conway Hospital Board of Trustees since 1997 and was president from 2001 to 2003. Holmes is president of Belle Terre Golf Courses and is a member of the Board of Directors of Burroughs & Chapin Company, Inc., and Brookgreen Gardens.

Mildred Holmes Prince

Prince was assistant to the chancellor at Coastal from 1960 to 1987, a position that involved a variety of administrative duties from coordinating the Veteran’s Affairs program to fundraising and bookkeeping. She was involved in the first major fundraising campaign for the first building on the present campus. A native of Conway, Prince earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina. She was named 1982 Career Woman of the Year by the Conway Business Professional Women’s Club. Prince is active in civic affairs and has served on the boards of the Horry County Memorial Library, the Horry County Museum, the Veteran’s Association of South Carolina and many other organizations in Conway and Loris.

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Computer Science program receives accreditation
Coastal Carolina University’s Department of Computer Science has received accreditation by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), a professional organization that evaluates higher education programs in science, computing, engineering and technology.

The accreditation applies to the Theoretical Option of Coastal’s Computer Science program. The theoretical option is a blend of computer sciences with mathematics and the sciences.

“Accreditation will impact our students by ensuring them that we have a quality program,” said Stephen Sheel, ABET coordinator, “Employers view it a mark of quality. Accreditation will aid students when they apply for graduate school.”

ABET granted Coastal’s computer science department accreditation based on a self-evaluation process and team visits over a yearlong period. ABET evaluators last visited the campus in October 2002 to verify the department’s self-study document.

“The computer science program at Coastal provides its students with an excellent core education, and a strong background in computer science,” concluded the ABET report.

The accreditation will be applied through September 2009 and will be retroactive to Oct. 1, 2001. In receiving accreditation, Coastal joins a select company of accredited programs including those at MIT and University of California at Berkeley.

Accreditation indicates a high level of quality in educational institutions and programs. Seeking accreditation is a voluntary, non-governmental process of peer review. It requires an educational institution or program to meet certain defined standards and criteria.

Approximately 230 Coastal students are majoring in computer sciences; about half that number are majoring in the theoretical option. The Department of Computer Science has 10 full-time faculty members.

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