Category: Faculty

UNE PSI CHI Chapter Welcomes 23 New Students

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Some of this year’s inductees to PSI CHI

The University of New England’s PSI CHI Chapter, which represents outstanding achievement in psychology, animal behavior and neuroscience, inducted 23 new undergraduate members on March 28th, 2019. The induction ceremony was conducted under the supervision of PSI CHI faculty advisor, Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D., associate professor and psychology program coordinator in the Department of Psychology with the assistance of PSI CHI president, Mark Stubbs, secretary, Jessica Saro, treasurer, Julia Beebe and communication editor, Amarah Emerson.

2018-2019 officers with Dr. S-B

Congratulations and welcome to all our new inductees:

Meagan Accardi, Sarah Andrews, Elissa Cady, Sadie Casale, Hannah Clifford, Jasmine Dansereau, Ravin Davis, Brianna Frankina, Marlee Gagnon, Taylor Gallant, Kaela Kee, Alissa Kruszenski, Amanda Leonard, Cameron Macomber, Nicole Martin, Courtney Mills, Joshua Morris, Catherine Napoli, Courtney Parent, Anneliese Rademacher, Renee Roth, Jaccob Sackett, Cassie Trask.   

Candlelight ceremony during the induction

The induction ceremony is one of our department’s greatest highlights of the year with many students, families, friends and administrators in attendance. One of our new inductees wrote the following about the experience “Being inducted into PSI CHI has been such an honor, and I have been truly blessed to have the opportunity to even be considered for membership. This distinction has pushed and motivated me to continue to value my education in many aspects, to envision and plan on my future goals, and to work harder in order to attain those goals” (Courtney Parent, PSY ’19).

PSI CHI officers for 2019-2020

During the induction ceremony, we also welcomed our new officers for the 2019-2020 academic year: Nicole Martin (president), Katie Paul (vice president), Cammy Macomber (treasurer) and Jessica Olmeda (secretary). Being an officer is not only a resume builder but can also be an extremely rewarding experience. One of our new officers wrote “It was an incredible honor to be welcomed into PSI CHI both as a new member and as president for next year.  Dr. Stiegler-Balfour and the PSI CHI e-board planned a wonderful ceremony making me incredibly excited to be able to know that next year I will have the opportunity pass the warm welcome they gave me on to even more students” (Nicole Martin, PSY ’21).

Founded in 1929 during the International Congress of Psychology, PSI CHI is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies and is an affiliate of both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS). With the stated mission of encouraging, stimulating and maintaining excellence in scholarship in the science of psychology, PSI CHI has grown to become one of the largest and most successful honor societies in the world with more than 1,000 chapters and over 735,000 members.

Graduating members of PSI CHI receive their honor cords

The University of New England’s chapter was formed in 2010 and has a tradition of organizing numerous academic, social and charitable events. One of the most popular PSI CHI events held each year is the Graduate School Information Night and Alumni Panel where students can learn about best practices for navigating the graduate school application process and meet recent alums. The group also organizes student socials and participates in community outreach programs like the Brain Fair. PSI CHI events are always open to the entire UNE community so please come and join us at one of our next events.

Interested in becoming a PSI CHI member next year? Please visit the UNE PSI CHI Chapter website (https://www.une.edu/cas/psych/psychology-club) to check out the eligibility requirements to become a member and be sure to look for an email from us next January. Your lifetime membership with PSI CHI is not only a fantastic resume builder but will also allow you to apply for special awards, grants and scholarship. PSI CHI gives out over $400,000 in financial support for students each year! Additionally, you will have opportunities for holding leadership positions within the organization as a PSI CHI Chapter officer.

Where are they now? Right here at UNE!

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One of the best things about being an instructor in the psychology department is the wonderful people we get to work with every day.  Students and colleagues alike! But two of our department members share a special sort of bond. They were both once students at UNE! As a matter of fact, they were in the very same graduating class.  We caught up with Professors Perazio and Moore to ask them a few questions about what UNE was like “back in the day.”

What about UNE has changed since you’ve been here?  What has stayed the same?

Professor Moore: There are decidedly a few differences between today’s UNE and the UNE that Professor P and I knew.  First and foremost…the buildings! When we were here as students, the Alfond Forum didn’t exist. Morgane, Pickus Biomedical Center, the Alumni Cottage, Windward cafe…these were all being built as we were leaving.  Professor Perazio was in the first class of students to live in Featherman hall as a freshman, too.

The psychology department was a bit different as well.  The Neuroscience and Animal Behavior majors didn’t exist in quite the same way.  Instead, they were accessible under different “tracks” in a major we called “Psychobiology.”  I know because this is the major I started with. Another difference? We didn’t have access to SPSS.  You might not think that is important, but stat students today have NO IDEA how lucky they are to have it. The system we used was called Systat.  Systat was, to put it lightly, painful.

Professor Perazio: Like Professor Moore said, when we started  in “Psychobiology,” Dr. D was the only faculty member teaching Animal Cog, CAB, and Intro Tech. Many of the faculty who you know and love were here as well (I actually took Dr. Berman’s very first Animal Learning class!). Professor Rankin was teaching Art Therapy, which was one of the most relaxing and therapeutic courses I have taken in my academic career.

Professor Moore: Professor Perazio is right.  While so much has changed, so much has also remained the same. Many of the faculty you all know today were indeed still here, although some of them were very new at the time!   I, too, remember walking into Dr. Burman and Dr. SB’s first ever classes here at UNE. I remember taking Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Morrison, Biological Basis of Behavior with Dr. Stevenson, and so many others.  But more than anything, I remember the feeling of connection that I had with my faculty mentors. How supportive they were of all of us and how their doors were always open. It is very clear to me that, in this department, not much has changed.

Professor Perazio: I second what Professor Moore just mentioned. What hasn’t changed about UNE, and specifically the psychology department, is the faculty-student relationships and mentoring that the department fosters. I remember basically living on the third floor of Decary, bouncing back and forth between Dr. D and Dr. Corsello’s offices and the fish lab (and of course 356 for the majority of my ANB classes).

Did you two know each other back in the day?

Professor Perazio: We did! But mostly through classes. For example, Professor Moore was actually my TA when I took Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Robin Buckley, and we took Art History together as well.

Professor Moore:  Oh my goodness, that’s right!  I forgot about Art History. What a great class.  We did have a few classes together and shared a few friends as well.  But we became particularly close when we started working here together.  UNE just seems to be an environment where close connections are fostered and maintained

What were you both involved in when you were students here?

Professor Perazio: I helped to co-found the Animal Behavior Club with two of my classmates our senior year, so circa 2010/2011. As a Marine Bio minor, I was also involved with volunteering at MARC and took courses with Dr. Frederich, Dr. Guay, and Dr. Friar. And of course, I worked in Dr. D’s “lab of fish awesomeness.” Professor Moore and I were also members of the inaugural class of UNE’s chapter of Psi Chi.

Professor Moore:  I was a tour guide on campus for each of the four years that I was here.  I was known as the “tour guide in heels” and if you take any classes with me now you might just know why!  I also was the treasurer of the Psychology club, and a Co-President of Psi Chi in my senior year. Finally, I was a part of the UNE Players, which was the drama club at the time.  My favorite production ever was “Grease” which was held at the Biddeford City Theatre.

Is the food ACTUALLY any better?  

Professor Moore:  Short answer?  Yes.

Professor Perazio: Seconded. There is no long answer.

So did you ever think that you’d be back? How did you end up teaching at UNE?

Professor Perazio: Haha, not. at. all. All I wanted when I graduated was to get out of the Northeast! Which I did, by spending several years in Mississippi and Florida. But at about the time I was really thinking that getting my Ph. D. and teaching were where my career goals really centered, Dr. D got in touch with me about the possibility of applying for the visiting lecturer position in ANB while she was on leave. And the rest, as they say, ‘is history’.

Professor Moore: Funny enough, I did wonder if it might happen.  I have always felt so connected to this place and to these people.  I had to get out and see the world a bit, just like Professor Perazio.  I’ve lived in Boston and Ireland, spent some time visiting England, St. Maarten, and the Canary Islands as well.  But at the end of the day, this home is where my heart has always been. As for how I ended up back here? That is a long story, but the short version is that, after moving back home from Ireland, I became curious about whether or not there were teaching positions anywhere nearby.  A job search revealed that indeed there was, and to reiterate Professor P, the rest is history.

Thanks to Professors Perazio and Moore for their thoughts!

Who knows “How to Design an Effective Yet Non-addictive Pain Reliever”?

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Glenn Stevenson (Professor of Psychology and Program Coordinator for the Neuroscience Major) recently gave a talk at the Maine Science Festival in Bangor. The talk was part of the 5 Minute Genius event, the Maine Science Festival’s answer to the traditional Ted Talk.

The event took place on March 15th at the Bangor Arts Exchange and included six Maine scientists. Each speaker had 5 minutes to deliver their talk and 5 minutes for audience questions.

The goal of the event was to make audience members feel like geniuses!

Dr. Stevenson’s talk covered some of the drug development and drug evaluation research that he and his undergraduate students have been doing over the past several years. The title of his talk was “How to Design an Effective Yet Non-addictive Pain Reliever.”

Congrats to Dr. Stevenson for his participation in this event.

What the Research Experience Club can do for you!

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The research and scholarship opportunities offered by UNE are practically endless, and the Research Experience Club (REC) hopes to show our Psychology Department undergraduates some of what’s available. REC, founded by three undergraduate Psychology majors working in Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour’s Reading Comprehension and Cognition lab, hosted the second annual Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium in December 2018. This symposium showcased the interdisciplinary research done by undergraduates across a variety of majors on campus and served to provide a platform to extend the opportunities offered by UNE’s research to students who may not already be involved in a research lab.

At the fall symposium we had a great representation of students from the Psychology Department, including four poster presentations from Drs. Stiegler-Balfour and Peterson’s labs. 

Mackenzie Deveau, in collaboration with Dr. Julie Peterson presented a study that aimed to examine how various types of information led female participants to formulate different evaluations and price estimates of consumer products.

Courtney Parent and Genna Companatico, collaborating with Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, presented a study examining a comparison of text types on reading comprehension in college students.

Ellie Leighton, a December 2019 graduate of the department and a former Research Assistant with Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, presented research with two other collaborators on two posters.  Ellie worked with Nicole Martin on a project examining the impact of e-reading on reading comprehension and efficiency, and she worked with Aubrey Sahouria on a project examining the impact of the font styles commonly used in e-readers on the market on readers’ comprehension and eyestrain. 

The club’s Fall Symposium was recently highlighted in a news release describing the event and the goals of the group.

REC’s mission is to build a community among student researchers, to promote student involvement with research, and to promote opportunities which serve to share student research and encourage collaboration. In the spirit of giving undergraduates a voice in the world of research, REC will be hosting their first Spring Research and Scholarship Social in April 2019, which aims to connect students interested in or involved with research across disciplines. There, undergraduates of all disciplines and ages will be able to learn about each other’s projects, network, and get involved in the wonderful world of research. 

For those interested in learning more information about the Research Experience Club, please contact Courtney Parent (‘19) at cparent3@une.edu or Nicole Martin (‘21) at nmartin5@une.edu.

Reading Comprehension and Cognition Lab – What are they up to?

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I’m happy to welcome Dr. Jennifer Steigler-Balfour’s comments about the work that she and her students are doing here in the Psychology Department. Let’s see what they are up to…

Nicole and Courtney present their work at the Eastern Psychological Association conference

Our Reading Comprehension and Cognition (RCC) lab is dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of how people encode, store, and retrieve information from memory. Research conducted in the lab aims to identify ways to optimize the process of learning, especially in educational settings.

Led by Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D. and Associate Professor and Psychology Program coordinator in the Department of Psychology, the RCC lab is currently studying the impacts of technology devices such as tablets and computers on reading speed and comprehension as it compares to printed text. Additionally, Dr. Stiegler-Balfour and her team are exploring how reading comprehension and speed varies with text type (e.g. a biology textbook vs. a ‘summer’ novel) across  reading mediums (e.g. e-reader vs. paper), and how different standardized reading tests predict reading outcomes across text types.

Undergraduate students play an important role in lab operations, study facilitation and the presentation of research at conferences and symposiums. For the 2018/2019 academic year, there are six undergraduate students working with Dr. Stiegler-Balfour: Courtney Parent, Psychology ’19; Mark Stubbs, Psychology ’19; Genna Companatico, Psychology ’20; Nicole Martin, Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience and Special Education; Aubrey Sahouria, Neuroscience ’22; and Ellie Leighton, Psychology ‘Dec. 18.

Two members of the RCC lab team – Courtney Parent and Nicole Martin — recently presented research conducted with Dr. Stiegler-Balfour at the 90th annual Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) meeting in New York City, NY (February 28 – March 1, 2019).  EPA is the oldest regional Psychological Association in the U.S. and serves to advance the science and profession of psychology through the dissemination of professional information about the field.

Courtney presented research conducted with Dr. Stiegler-Balfour on reading performance across text types in standardized reading tests. The study is the first to show that there are significant correlations among three different standardized reading comprehension assessments and shed light onto which standardized tests are better suited for assessing narrative versus expository text. The results also provide further evidence that reading comprehension ability can be significantly predicted from general working memory capacity and metacognitive skills. From Courtney’s perspective, the experience at EPA was invaluable:

“The experiences from EPA were unforgettable! Through attendance of this conference, I learned so much from the talks and poster sessions. It was so inspiring to see so many people who were passionate about psychology and their work in the field. Not only did I have the opportunity to attend talks, I was able to present our research in the Reading Comprehension and Cognition Lab to faculty members and fellow students attending the conference, which helps to further my effective public speaking skills. The knowledge and experience I’ve gained from EPA will carry with me in the future throughout my graduate career, and for that, I am forever thankful.”

Nicole’s presentation was research conducted together with Ellie Leighton and Dr. Stiegler-Balfour on the influence of typographical features of e-readers on reading comprehension. The results from this study indicate that readers of all skill levels can read and comprehend narrative passages on digital mediums, but that reading on a Kindle may be less efficient than reading on paper because of an increase in reading time. Their findings also suggest that sans serif fonts may be optimal for reading on digital devices.

Nicole’s EPA experience mirrored that of her fellow lab team member.

“Being able to attend EPA was an amazing opportunity. I was incredibly lucky to be able to go. At the conference, I attended talks on neurological development, the social psychology involved in politics, and how to get into graduate school. I was able to talk to many different people, all of whom were so interested in our research on how font affects reading comprehension. As a sophomore, I know I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to present at a conference and was so glad I was able to attend!”

Funding for students’ conference registration and travel was made possible by the Office of Research and Scholarship and UNE’s PSI CHI Chapter.  

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Thanks to Dr. Stiegler-Balfour, Courtney, and Nicole for this information about their work!

What Do Old Pill Bottles and Plastic Beads have to Do With Aging?

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A guest post by Dr. Christina Leclerc, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Psychology

What do old pill bottles and plastic beads have to do with aging? A lot actually if you were in my Psychology of Aging (PSY 325) class a few weeks ago.  Students in my class had a chance to take part in a fully immersive experience about what it feels like to manage multiple medications.

During our coverage of the most common issues related to health in aging, the students learned that the use of both prescription and over-the-counter medications is one of the most important health issues faced by older adults today.  Older adults take more medications on average than any other age group, with older adults prescribed about 50% of all drugs in the United States.  When you include supplements, vitamins, and over-the-counter drugs, that can mean about six to seven medications per older adult in the population.  That is a lot of pills to manage, each with their own set of safety information, instructions for use, and risks of side effects.    

While the explosion of new prescription and over-the-counter medications over the past few decades has opened up the opportunity for many additional treatment options for chronic conditions common in the aging population, taking more drugs also means that keeping track of them all becomes more difficult.  Imagine having to keep track of six different medications, each of which has a different schedule.  Medication adherence (taking medications correctly) becomes less likely the more drugs people take and the more complicated the regimens are.  The oldest old (those over the age of 85) are especially at risk; the most common problem is that they simply forget to take the medication.   Yet adherence is crucial to their treatment success.

During their immersive activity, students in the class took on the role of an older adult who was prescribed six different medications, including those that treat mild cognitive impairment, anxiety, allergies, an acute infection, and the symptoms of arthritis. 

Our simulated older adults needed to indicate to their partner all of the necessary information about each drug to ensure they understood the medications.  They noted how many times a day the medication should be taken, a specified time of day it should be taken if only once, the dosage of the medication, any special instructions about taking it with food or without, and how many refills they had left on their prescription. 

Once they had demonstrated knowledge of their medication list, our “older adults” were asked to set up their daily medication schedule for a full week on a chart to demonstrate how they might space out their medications to get clear picture of how frequently they would be taking medication throughout a day and just how many pills they would be taking on a regular basis.  When those charts were full, there were a lot of “pills” out there!  The class gained a real appreciation for the psychological and practical impacts of being responsible for that many medications and why some older adults struggle with this task in their later years, especially when their health begins to deteriorate.

When I am not making my students count plastic beads and play with pill bottles, you can frequently find me teaching Lifespan Development, Research Methods, and Introductory Psychology, but my passion for teaching is really the in depth topic electives like the Psychology of Aging.  The aging population fascinates me, not because of its differences from younger age groups, but because of its remarkable similarity to individuals who are much younger.  Our ability, throughout the aging process, to compensate for normal age-related declines is amazing and the passion for understanding and appreciating that ability to compensate is something I hope I am able to share with my students.

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Thanks to Dr. Leclerc and her students for this insight into the Psychology of Aging!

Problem Solving and Pecha Kuchas

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And for today… a post from Professor Ashley Moore, Visiting Assistant Lecturer here in the Department of Psychology. Thanks for the post Prof Moore!

As a visiting faculty member in the psychology department, I have taught multiple different courses. From Lifespan Development to Abnormal Psychology, Social Psychology to Theories of Personality, and Internship to Community Psych…I’m a little all over the map. I love this variety more than anything, but what if someone made me choose just one?  If I absolutely, positively had to pick I’d say the teaching Community Psych might just be one of my favorites.

What is Community Psychology?  I’m glad you asked. 

Community Psychology is the study of community phenomenon to understand system-level problems and catalyze change in those systems.  It is understanding the individuals of a particular community in the context of that community.  It is problem solving, social justice, and change-making all wrapped up into one lovely package.  How could you not be excited by that?

I typically teach Community Psych in the spring semester, and this year is no different.  Every student in my class is required to choose one social issue that they are most interested in and, through a series of different assignments, eventually create an intervention program for that problem.  That’s right, I’ve had the privilege of watching students “solve” (or help solve) social issues ranging from immigration policy reform, to homelessness, to teenage pregnancy.  What is so extraordinary and humbling each time is that at least one student takes what they have suggested and implements it in some way-in real life. 

This classroom inevitably becomes filled with the problem solvers of the world, so why not spread the word?  This semester, we will be hosting a Pecha Kucha presentation event of some kind.  (Think super-speedy presentations-no more than 8 minutes apiece.) Students will present their issue, intervention program, and a product of some kind.  We’d love to have all of you join us!

Inevitably, when faced with solving the big, complex issues of the globe, my students ask me how to avoid despair and feelings of helplessness.  I tell them that they simply need to focus on taking the next step forward. We’d like to invite you to step forward with us.

Details of the Pecha Kucha presentations are not yet pinned down, but are forthcoming.  Keep checking back; as soon as we have a date and a time set, we will post the information here!

Community Psychology currently fulfills one of the requirements for our MHRT-C minor.  This is a certificate-based minor that results in students being hired post- graduation at a higher pay rate. If you have any questions about this class, or the Pecha Kucha event, don’t hesitate to contact Professor Moore via email or office phone. 

Contact:

Professor Ashley Moore

Decary 317

207-602-2464

amoore5@une.edu

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Thanks to Professor Moore for sharing this information about herself and her community psychology course!

A departmental loss

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The Department of Psychology is sad to share with you the news of the death of one of our faculty members, Dr. Teresa Dzieweczynski.

Dr. D (center, in blue cardigan) with members of her research lab last year.

Dr. Dzieweczynski (known to most as Dr. D) joined the Psychology Department in 2005. During her time here at UNE, she helped to develop and grow the Animal Behavior program, served as the ANB program coordinator, mentored many undergraduate students with their research in the fish lab, taught many core ANB courses, and contributed in many ways through university service.

Her loss is felt by many students, faculty, and staff here at the University.

The President of UNE shared the news of her death with the UNE community and I am sharing his comments , which describe many of Dr. D’s accomplishments, below.


Dear UNE Community Members,
 
It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of one of our distinguished faculty, Dr. Teresa Dzieweczynski. Dr. Dzieweczynski, or “Dr. D” as she was affectionately known by her students, earned her B.S. in marine sciences and psychology from Long Island University in 1998, followed by her Ph.D. in animal behavior, ecology, and evolutionary biology in June 2005 from Indiana University. She joined the UNE faculty that same fall as an assistant professor of animal behavior. Dr. Dzieweczynski served not just as the program coordinator but the steward for the animal behavior major, growing the program from its inception to one of the largest majors in the College of Arts and Sciences.  In 2011, she was promoted to associate professor with tenure, and, with special permission, received the news of her promotion to professor in late February 2019.
 
Dr. Dzieweczynski was a well-published ethologist whose work on the behavioral effects of inadvertent pharmaceutical exposure in fish resulted in over 30 publications in journals, including Animal Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology, Hormones and Behavior, and Aquatic Toxicology. Work by Dr. Dzieweczynski and her research team has also been featured on the Discovery Channel and in Discover Magazine.

Although “Dr. D” wore many hats during her career at UNE, none brought her greater joy nor inspired her more than mentoring her undergraduate research students and advocating for the advancement of the undergraduate research culture in the College of Arts and Sciences. Over the years, she mentored over 60 undergraduate students in her lab, most of whom worked with her for multiple years and gave presentations on their research at local, regional, national, and international conferences. One of the most prolific authors in the College of Arts and Science, Dr. Dzieweczynski published over 30 peer-reviewed publications as a principal investigator, with over 90 percent of her publications featuring undergraduate co-authors. In all that she did, including populating her research group, Dr. D championed inclusivity and strove to provide opportunities, which was evidenced by over 90 percent of her research students being female and over 80 percent being low-income, first generation college students.
 
Dzieweczynski lab alumni have received numerous national and international accolades including multiple Council for Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill awards, Animal Behavior Society undergraduate grants, and a Goldwater Scholarship. They have gone on to be successful in a wide range of career paths, including, veterinary medicine, animal care, nursing, physical therapy, and behavioral field research at government agencies. One former research assistant is even following in Dr. Dzieweczynski’s footsteps as a lecturer in animal behavior at UNE.
Her passion for undergraduate research extended past her own research group, as she served as the College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate research coordinator for three years, where she worked diligently to increase support for, and visibility and diversity of, undergraduate research on campus.
In recognition of her significant contributions to undergraduate research and her embodiment of the ideal teacher-scholar model, Dr. Dzieweczynski received the Kenneally Cup for distinguished academic service in August 2015 and the CUR Mid-Career Mentoring Award that same year.  Most recently, she was awarded the Ludcke Chair of Liberal Arts and Sciences for 2018-19, being one of only eight recipients in CAS to receive this award and the first recipient to achieve this significant recognition at the rank of associate professor.

University counseling services are available for students who may require extra support at this time. A grief counselor to support faculty and staff will be available on Tuesday, from 1 to 3 p.m., in Decary 402. A tribute to Dr. Dzieweczynski’s legacy is still in the planning stages, but community members wanting to honor her memory are encouraged to use the UNE Day of Giving on March 26 to make a gift in her name.
 
I join my colleagues in offering my condolences to Dr. Dzieweczynski’s family and friends.

 
Sincerely,
James D. Herbert
President

Our condolences to the family, students, friends, and colleagues of Dr. D.

Introducing Dr. Linda Morrison

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The big news for Dr. Morrison this year is the addition of a new family member:  Mason Riley Morrison.  Mason is a Tri-Color English Springer Spaniel and he is keeping the family very busy.  His favorite thing to do is to take a flying leap and jump up on tables very much like a goat.   With sound operant conditioning techniques he will be gently dissuaded from continuing this behavior.  Erin and Elizabeth (Dr. M’s kids) think he is hilarious and their geriatric springer Connor tolerates him but just barely and he refuses to share his tennis balls. 

In case you were wondering, Dr. Morrison also continues in her role as a Girl Scout leader.  She is now in her 8th year leading or co-leading a girl scout troop in the Kennebunk area.  Next weekend she is taking her scout troop to World Thinking Day where they will be operating a booth teaching other girl scouts about India.  Her fifth grade girls were shocked to learn that only about 66% of girls and women in India can read and nearly 25% of Indian girls drop out before high school.  Feminism and multicultural awareness are important to Dr. Morrison both in the classroom at UNE and in her Girl Scout troop! 

At UNE, Dr. Morrison’s two research groups continue to collect data and work on sharing their work with wider audiences.  Her two major areas of research interest are (1) investigating the efficacy of sexual assault prevention programs and (2) assessing the effectiveness of social global awareness courses in meeting core curriculum learning outcomes. 

Jackie Noto (2017) and Holly Zeldenhurst (2018) continue to collaborate with Dr. Morrison and Emily Mott (2020) on the sexual assault prevention project.  They are working with UNE Title IX coordinator Angela Shambarger and the new Title IX Investigator and Prevention Specialist Brittany Swett to continue to collect data assessing the efficacy of Green Dot training at UNE.  Saturday Feb 16th they collected data on the Green Dot Training held on campus and will compare this the student green dot participants with both Introduction to Psychology students and Date Safe participants in their attitudes and beliefs about dating violence, bystander intervention, sex roles, and rape myths. 

Chloe Whittaker (2021) and Erin Shores (2021) have been helping Dr. Morrison the last couple years with the Social Global Awareness (SGA) project aimed at assessing whether SGA courses in our core curriculum increase students global awareness, social justice, acceptance of diversity and intergroup empathy.  They have now amassed three years of data and are in the process of writing up a paper for submission.  They presented preliminary data at NEPA Spring of 2017 and Erin Shores (pictured below on the right next to Dr. Morrison) continues to be passionately involved in the project.  Last week, they plowed through a path analysis of their data from Fall of 2017, and this week they are going to run that same analysis on data from Fall of 2018.   Research is so much FUN! 

Finally, Dr. Morrison is psyched to be teaching a course on Trauma this semester.  The course has been approved as a regular course offering (PSY 375) and will become a required part of the MHRT/C minor starting next Fall.  One of the requirements of the course is to participate in a prevention project aimed at reducing either a cause or a mediating effect of trauma. Last year her class created a quilt depicting student experiences with racism on the UNE campus.  It is now installed on the first floor of the Ripich Commons.  If you are on campus you should check it out! 

Next time you see Dr. Morrison around campus, be sure to say hello!

Animal Behavior Major Tarryn Nutt helps make UNE a better place

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Tarryn Nutt (kneeling, second from the right), and other students and faculty members from the Women & Gender Studies program

Last spring, Tarryn Nutt (ANB ’21) enrolled in WGST 200: Introduction to Women’s Studies as part of her minor in Women and Gender Studies. In the class, students are asked to complete an activism project on a topic of their choosing. Tarryn had already been addressing the issue of access to feminine hygiene products at UNE and decided to expand on that for her project. She believes that easy and free access to feminine hygiene products is important and necessary. Menstruation is a biological factor for women and not having access to feminine hygiene products can have adverse effects on students’ academic success. Tarryn was quoted in the UNE news article about this (https://www.une.edu/news/2019/une-provides-students-access-feminine-hygiene-products) saying “’It’s important for me to be able to go to class and get an education,’ she explained, noting that without the proper coins for the former coin-operated dispensers, female students often needed to leave class  — sometimes at  critical moments — to trek across  campus to their dorm rooms to retrieve a tampon or pad”.

As they say, from there, the rest is history.

Tarryn successfully complete her class project but didn’t stop there. She took the information she had gathered to UNE’s Women and Gender Studies Club. After additional time and efforts, and with the support of the club, Tarryn presented a proposal to increase access to these products for UNE students to President James Herbert. Herbert was impressed with the work completed by Tarryn, and by her and the other students’ arguments, and took the idea to the senior leadership team, who created a budget to implement her proposed free tampon program .

The University of New England is now providing students with access to free feminine hygiene products on its campuses. Thanks to a partnership between university administrators and a group of students, tampons are now available in dispensers in several non-residential UNE buildings in both Biddeford and Portland. Under the new initiative, women’s bathroom tampon dispensers, which were previously coin-operated, have been retro-fitted to eliminate the need for money. They are stocked with Tambrands tampons, made in Auburn, Maine.

Our congratulations and thanks go out to Tarryn and the other members of the WGST Club for their hard work to address this need for our female students here at UNE! Thanks as well go to Dr. Julie Peterson, who offered the WGST course in which Tarryn started this work and for her support of the WGST club.