Communications Special thanks to two alumni who were guest speakers in classes this semester: Michael Kaplan ’85, partner, account services, at Bozell Worldwide in New York, and Jay Linden ’72, senior vice president of sales development and marketing at NBC Television. Seven IC students attended the Professional Baseball Employment Opportunities Job Fair, held in Nashville, Tennessee, in December. Seniors Kevin Rettig, Erin Ryan, and Andrew Scafetta had interviews with representatives from minor league baseball teams and made many contacts with professionals in the field. One contact was Kurt Goodman ’97, who at the time was director of marketing for the Jacksonville Suns. Stephanie Youngers ’99, president of the IC chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, published an article in the winter 1999 issue of Forum, the national PRSSA publication. "A Whole Different World: Non-Profit PR" described Youngers’s internship experiences at the Sciencenter in Ithaca. Maryl Neff, chapter adviser, says the article is "informative . . . and opens up another realm of possibilities to students who may not have previously considered the nonprofit arena." The Ithacan has won more awards. The New York Press Association’s 1999 Better College Newspaper Competition awarded Gretta Nemcek ’99 first place in feature writing and the Ithacan third place in both overall excellence and design. And the Society of Professional Journalists awarded the Ithacan the following "mark of excellence" awards at its region 1 (Northeast) competition: Robert Bluey ’01, second place, in-depth reporting, for "An Analysis of the Bias-Related Incidents Committee" (December 3, 1998); Gretta Nemcek, second place, feature writing, for "The Girl in the Mirror" (October 22, 1998); the Ithacan, third place, overall excellence, 1998; and Melissa Thornley ’02, third place, sports photography. ICTV did well at the same convention, receiving first place, television non-daily newscast, for Newswatch 54; first place, television feature photography, for "Noise Photo Essay"; first place, television sports photography, for "Sports Final"; second place, television feature, for "The Tulip Man"; second place, television sports reporting, for "Eighth Grade Sensation"; and third place, television non-daily newscast, for "Diversity in Central New York." Graduate students Tamara DiVasto and Su Qian, alumna Amanda Harris ’98, and undergraduate Cathleen Ann Chaffee ’99 gave papers at the national conference of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender in the fall. They were accompanied by graduate program chair Sandra Herndon. The Department of Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design has received a financial boon from Housing Authority Insurance — a gift presented in appre-ciation and recognition of the high-quality interns that have come to the company from IC. The yearly donation will be used to provide scholarships for students in the OCLD department. Lisa Conley ’95 is a human resources coordinator at Housing Authority Insurance and has organized the company’s internship program for the past three years. As part of the College’s Day of Service in March, David Shapiro, asso-ciate professor of OCLD, and three OCLD students — juniors Carrie Cochran and Paul Colombo and senior Erin Ryan — used digital cameras to record the service activities of faculty, staff, and students. These images will be placed on the Internet and developed into a digital slide show. Campus radio station 106-VIC raised $4,000 for the Tompkins County Task Force for Battered Women and the Child Sexual Abuse Project during its 13th annual 50-hour marathon. The marathon is VIC’s biggest promotional and community service event of the year, and this marathon was the most successful to date. DJs Don Glasgow ’99 and John Kerber ’00 stayed on the air from 4:00 p.m. Friday, March 26, to 6:00 p.m. Sunday, March 28. The marathon was simulcast on ICTV channel 16, and portions of it were carried on WICB-FM. Prerecorded "good luck" messages from President Peggy Williams, Park School dean Tom Bohn, and "American Top 40" host Rick Dees from KIIS-FM in Los Angeles were broadcast for Glasgow and Kerber. Assistant professor of OCLD Diana Ryan’s Interactive Multimedia class prepared computer-based lessons on geography topics for South Hill Elementary School. In a project that originated as a one-time "service-learning" experience during the Day of Service, students in assis-tant professor Christine Iacobucci’s Organizational Communication and Technology class prepared virtual tours through China, Egypt, and the history of the United States for third and fourth graders in Lansing. But Iacobucci and Lansing Elementary School principal Sherri Dempsey envisioned a mutually beneficial, long-range service-learning relationship between the two institutions — and they’re making it happen. For example, Ray Pashoukos ’99 has a summer internship at the elementary school; he is helping design ways to integrate computer technology into the curriculum while gaining valuable experience working with children. Iacobucci also arranged for the OCLD department to sign on as a collaborator for a BOCES regional grant application for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund. This collaboration gives the elementary school general support and strengthens its applications for grants by having a higher education partner. Mara Alper, assistant professor in the tele-vision-radio department, was selected as one of 75 educators to participate in this year’s International Radio and Television Society Foundation faculty/industry seminar, which is operating under the theme 2000."