March 17, 2006

MARCH 17 - TOPPING OUT CEREMONY TO MARK RIVERPARK CONSTRUCTION MILESTONE

Officials will conduct a Topping out of the Columbus State University art and theatre complex at noon Friday to celebrate the completion of the structural steel portion of the new facilities that are part of CSUs RiverPark Campus at 936 Bay Avenue. This event signifies a major milestone in completing the structure, and means the project is entering the final stages of construction.

CSU President Frank Brown and Raymond Moody, president and chief operating officer of Batson-Cook Construction, will lead the ceremony that will commence under the CSU tent on the green space between CSUs new art and theatre complex and the river.

Faculty members and administrators from the art and theatre departments also will be on hand, as will the architects involved in the project. Participants in Fridays event will sign a beam that will be raised as the last piece of steel installed at the top of the complex. For more information, contact John Lester at 706-562-1652 or Maureen Upchurch, editorial director for Batson-Cook at 336-540-9942 or 919-412-5469 .

MARCH 19 - CSU, ATLANTA YOUTH WIND SYMPHONIES TO PERFORM
The Columbus State University Wind Symphony and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony each will perform in a concert that begins 4 p.m. Sunday in the RiverCenters Bill Heard Theatre., The CSU symphony will perform half the program with conductor, Professor Robert Rumbelow. They will be joined by tuba soloist Andrew Miller, who also is a CSU music faculty member. The Atlanta symphony will be under the baton of conductor Scott Stewart. The program will feature music by Shostakovish, Bennett, Schwantner, Arnold and others. General admission is $5 and free for CSU faculty, staff and students. For tickets or more information, call 706-256-3600.

MARCH 20 - ORGANIST FAYTHE FREESE TO PERFORM
Columbus State Universitys Schwob School of Music will host a performance by guest organist Faythe Freese at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 20 in the RiverCenters Legacy Hall. Freese, who has performed throughout the United States, serves on the music faculty at the University of Alabama. General admission is $10 and free for CSU faculty, staff and students. For tickets or more information, call 706-256-3600.

MARCH 21, 24 - PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE T0 PERFORM WORLD PREMIERE OF ERIC MOE PIECE
Professor Paul Vaillancourt and the CSU Percussion Ensemble students have been rehearsing for the world premiere of a piece written especially for them. The ensemble will premiere I Have Only One Itching Desire, based on Jimi Hendrixs Fire, and the work of nationally acclaimed composer Eric Moe, CSUs Carson McCullers Composer Resident for 2006. The performance will be part of a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the RiverCenters Legacy Hall. A reception will follow the event that will include performances by CSUs New Music Ensemble and solo performances by Moe.

A second performance of the piece is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 24 in Legacy Hall as part of the CSU Percussion Ensembles annual feature concert that also is free and open to the public.

Moe, a founding member of the San Francisco-based EARPLAY ensemble, currently co-directs the Music on the Edge new music concert series in Pittsburgh, Pa.. He also directs the University of Pittsburghs graduate program in composition and the schools electroacoustic music studio.

The Carson McCullers Composer Residency Program, a collaboration between CSUs Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians and CSUs Schwob School of Music, annually commissions a nationally recognized composer and premieres the commissioned piece. For more information, call 706-568-2054 or 706-649-1235.

MARCH 23 - FACULTY RESEARCH FORUM TO COVER PERU ARCHAEOLOGY CONTROVERSY, STUDENT CHEATING AND THE ORIGINS OF ENCRYPTION
CSU Libraries will stage a Universitywide Faculty Research Forum, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23 in the Schwob Library. CSU professors will make the following presentations:

• The 21st Century Discovery of El Dorado by Warren Church, associate professor of archaeology and anthropology.
• Cheating and Related Factors Among University Students by Harvey Richman, professor of psychology;
• Cipher Machines From Antiquity to the Enigma Machine by Wayne Summers, professor and chair of the TSYS Department of Computer Science.

Summers will demonstrate that encryption or encoding, such as in transmitting credit card data, is not new. His research traces the history of machines for encryption, from the earliest known encryption or cipher machines to the Enigma machine used in the first half of the 20th century. History is punctuated with codes. They have decided the outcomes of battles and led to the deaths of kings and queens said Summers, quoting author Simon Singh.

Richman recently surveyed 150 undergraduates 60 percent of whom reported at least one instance of cheating. Related fndings included persistent or habitual cheating as much less common and cheating as more frequently reported in math and technical courses. Also, easy convenient methods were common whereas methods that required more effort and planning were rare. On the positive side, said Richman, students were less likely to cheat if they viewed the professor positively.

El Dorado refers to a mythical city or kingdom of gold, believed to remain hidden on the forested eastern slopes of Perus Andean cordillera since the 16th century arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The region also is emerging as an archaeological research frontier where, as Church described in a recent publication, an aura of romance and riches attracts unregulated ecotourism, extreme-sports expeditions, pseudo-scientific explorations, and, most recently, the rampant looting of pre-Hispanic monuments. Churchs archaeological and conservation work draws attention to battles being waged on this archaeological frontier, and offers some solutions.

The presentations are free and open to the public. For more information, call 706-568-2080.

MARCH 23-26 - CSU TO STAGE THE MUSICAL PIPPIN
Columbus State Universitys Department of Theatre will stage the musical Pippin at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, March 23-25 and 2 p.m. Sunday March 26 in the Fine Arts Hall auditorium. Directed by theater Professor Brenda May Ito, the performance will be based on director/choreographer Bob Fosses original production that tells the story of Prince Pippins longing to discover the secret of true happiness. Tickets will be sold at the CSU box office in Fine Arts Hall call 706-569-3179. General admission prices are $20 for adults, $16 for seniors, children under age of 11, military and alumni, and free for CSU faculty, staff, and students with CSU ID. For more information, call 706-568-2048.

MARCH 24 - NCAA SOFTBALL: CSU TO HOST LANDER
The Columbus State University softball squad will host Lander for a doubleheader starting 3 p.m. Friday, March 24 at Lady Cougar Field. General admission is $5, $3 for students and free for military personnel and CSU students, faculty and staff, with appropriate ID. For more information, call 706-568-2204 or visit http://athletics.colstate.edu.