April 2008
Administration
Mercyhurst College's decision to enter the federal direct student loan program was a story covered by the Fox Business Network April 10. The Fox team delivered live hourly news coverage from the Erie campus, interviewing a number of students and administrators. In addition, a taped interview with Kathy Bialk, director of student financial services, was carried by as many as 20 local Fox News stations around the country.
Hillary Clinton's visit to Mercyhurst reached many national news outlets, including The New York Times. Read "Faith in Spotlight, Candidates Battle for Catholic Votes."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an editorial in favor of Mercyhurst's decision to have Hillary Clinton speak on campus April 1. Read "Church and college: A Catholic campus should be a political forum, too."
March 2008
Student-Athlete
Mercyhurst goaltender Matt Lundin is featured in a USCHO.com story titled "Living the Dream Again." Read the story.
Administration
Mercyhurst's decision to become a direct lender of federal student loans garnered national attention via the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Read more.
Faculty
A story on Mercyhurst's premier intelligence studies program and its founder, Robert J. Heibel, appears this month in "The Grapevine," the monthly publication of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. Read story.
February 2008
Faculty
News about Mercyhurst forensic anthropologist Dr. Steven Symes earning the prestigious T. Dale Stewart Award for lifetime achievement in physical anthropology from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences has reached several national publications, among them Forensic Magazine. Read more.
Sisters of Mercy & Faculty
A story in the Feb. 22 issue of the National Catholic Reporter about greening initiatives advanced by Roman Catholic women religious prominently features Mercyhurst College and our own Sisters of Mercy. Please read "Going green: Sisters are renewing community life from the ground up."
January 2008
Student
A story on Mercyhurst hockey standout Meghan Agosta and her career accomplishments to date, not to mention her future potential, are touted in a "USA Hockey" story, "Sky's the limit for Agosta" carried Jan. 21. Read story.
Faculty
Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat and the Mercyhurst Applied Forensic Sciences Department continue to make regional news stemming from cases they are handling for area law enforcement. Read "Police: Foul play not suspected in woman's death" in the Jan. 15 Somerset County Daily American.
Faculty
Mercyhurst College forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat is named in an AP story relative to a case his department is working on in cooperation with Pittsburgh area authorities. The case surrounds an infant whose skeletal remains were found in a suitcase in a Hempfield home.
November 2007
Faculty
Dr. Tom Matta, assistant professor of family ecology, is featured with his brothers, Jim and Dana, in a Nov. 29 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story titled "From dropouts to doctorates."
October 2007
Faculty
Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Director Dr. James Adovasio is featured in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for his groundbreaking work at Meadowcroft Rockshelter, which is now undergoing a major construction project in the form of a new visitors' center that will showcase more dramatically the pioneering work of Adovasio, his students and colleagues during the past 34 years. Read "Digging up the Past."
September 2007
Faculty - Alumni
Mercyhurst College intelligence studies assistant professor Kristan Wheaton, J.D., and intelligence studies graduate Diane Chido collaborated on "Evaluating Intelligence" published in the September-October issue of Competitive Intelligence Monthly. Read "Evaluating Intelligence."
Sisters of Mercy
Sister JoAnne Courneen, RSM, is quoted in an article in The Catholic Telegraph about integrating Mercy traditions into the 16 colleges and universities founded by the Sisters of Mercy in the U.S. The Conference on Mercy Higher Education met recently at Mercyhurst College to share ideas. Read the The Catholic Telegraph story.
August 2007
Alumni
Mike Lyden and Dan Bukowski, recent graduates of the Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies (MCIIS), share their experiences from the Wiki on Global Diseases project conducted with the National Intelligence Council via a podcast presentation. Lyden is currently an analyst with McManis & Monsalve Associates and Bukowski works for Booz Allen Hamilton. More information about the MCIIS can be found at http://www.mciis.org. The Wiki on Global Diseases project can be viewed at http://nie.wikispaces.com. Check out the podcast at http://cipodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=249349.
Students
2005 Mercyhurst College graduate Bridget Helene is one of six job candidates on the new reality show, "The Fashionista Diaries," which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on cable channel SOAPnet. The show follows the drama of six assistants who try to make it in the competitive worlds of fashion, beauty and publishing. Read about Helene's adventures in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
July 2007
Students
2006 Mercyhurst College graduate Elisabeth Baldanza, 23, of Oneota, N.Y., beat out 21 other contenders to win the title of Miss New York and compete for the Miss America crown. Baldanza earned a bachelor of science degree in marriage and family studies from Mercyhurst and is a former RA. Read the NYDAILYNEWS.COM story
The Associated Press picked up a story carried in the Erie Times-News on Friday, July 13, about mother-of-nine Julie Belcher, who graduated over the weekend from the Municipal Police Training Academy at Mercyhurst North East. Exported over the state news wire, the story was carried by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Philly.com site.
June 2007
Faculty/Students
The After Dinner Opera Company, in residence at Mercyhurst College, performed in New York City in June. Company director Louisa Jonason and eight Mercyhurst students and grads were the subject of a favorable review in The New York Times. Read The New York Times review.
At the invitation of the National Intelligence Council, students in Kristan Wheaton's Strategic Intelligence class recently produced a project to support and supplement the council's work on global disease. A story on their efforts was carried in the June 1, 2007, edition of Government Computer News. Read "NIC sponsors wiki on global disease"
May 2007
Faculty
The findings of Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, director of the Applied Forensic Sciences Program at Mercyhurst, were revealed in The Herald Standard May 9 regarding a case he and a team of Mercyhurst students worked on in Fayette County last September.
April 2007
Students
First-year applied intelligence graduate student Josh Peterson has been published by the International Relations and Security Network (ISN). Based in Zurich, Switzerland, the ISN provides a wide range of high-quality and comprehensive products and resources to encourage the exchange of information among international relations and security professionals worldwide. The Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies (MCIIS) was recently named a principal partner in the ISN. Read Peterson's story
Administration
Mercyhurst's Joe Howard, assistant director of residence life and student conduct, was quoted in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article April 19 about online behavior. Additionally, Mercyhurst was identified as "one of the nation's first schools to issue students brochures on online civility and protecting themselves against cyber-stalkers." Read "Monitoring online behavior a vexing problem."
Faculty
Intelligence studies faculty Stephen Marrin was quoted April 25 in a USA Today story. Read "Contractors playing major role in U.S. intelligence"
Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Director Dr. James Adovasio, author of the new book, The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory, is quoted extensively in a story titled, "The evolution of sex roles," in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
March 2007
Alumni
Mercyhurst College intelligence studies assistant professor Kristan Wheaton, J.D., and recent intel graduate Diane Chido collaborated on "Defining 'Stragetic' - You and What Army?" that will be published in Competitive Intelligence Monthly in April.
Mercyhurst College alumnus J. P. Ratajczak, a graduate of the college's intelligence studies and organizational leadership programs, is author of "Engineering Engineers: A True Story on how to Develop a Trade Show Intelligence Process" in the January/February issue of Competitive Intelligence Magazine. His piece will also be included as a chapter in the Competitive Intelligence Foundation's latest book, Conference and Trade Show Intelligence. Read http://home.earthlink.net/~jpratajczak/engineeringengineers/
Students
Mercyhurst College music education major Kara Stadelman beat out more than 400 contestants to win the Cleveland Idol competition. Hear her sing
On Wednesday, March 21, the Auburn Citizen in Auburn, N.Y., carried a feature story - "A song in her heart" - describing the musical talent and career aspirations of Mercyhurst College senior music education major Joanna Brehaut of Elbridge, N.Y., who was recently accepted as a master's candidate in music education at Syracuse University. Also quoted in the story, in which Mercyhurst was credited for introducing Brehaut to an "expansive repertoire of French, German and Italian opera," was music faculty Lisa Layman. Read "A song in her heart"
A Mercyhurst College senior Nicole Gasse reveals what it is like to be gifted with a talent for opera in the latest edition of Faith, the magazine of the Catholic Diocese of Erie. The centerfold story is titled "Reaching for the Heights."
A group of Mercyhurst College students, under the direction of campus minister Paul Macosko, spent their spring break volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in Valdosta, Ga. Their hard work was highlighted on WALB News Channel 10 in South Georgia.
Faculty
On Wednesday, March 14, Mercyhurst forensic anthropologist Steven A. Symes, Ph.D., a leading expert on skeletal trauma, dismemberment and mutilation, testified in Superior Court in New Brunswick, N.J., as an expert witness for the prosecution in what has been dubbed the "suitcase murder" trial of a New Jersey woman. His testimony was reported in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
A review of Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Director Dr. James Adovasio's new book, "The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory," was carried in the Chicago Sun-Times March 4.
February 2007
Faculty
Dr. James Adovasio, director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, is featured in a Friday, Feb. 16, story in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, which highlights his book-signing event at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Feb. 17. Adovasio's newest book is called "The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the Roles of Women in Prehistory."
Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, director of applied forensic sciences at Mercyhurst, was featured in a Pittsburgh Tribune Review story Sunday, Feb. 4. Read "Experts still scratching their skulls over bones of three men."
January 2007
Faculty
Dr. Mary Ann Owoc, associate professor of anthropology/archaeology at Mercyhurst, was quoted Jan. 30-31 in numerous national newspapers about an ancient complex discovered near Stonehenge in England. Owoc was interviewed by a reporter from the Los Angeles Times and the story was carried on the AP wire. Among the other newspapers Owoc was quoted in are The Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and Austin American-Statesman.