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Satterlee Survives Tangle In Traffic & Holds Off Lanigan for Fulton Bank 50 Victory at Delaware
Pennsylvania Driver Rebounds From Recent Struggles with $10,050 WoO LMS Win
DELMAR, Del. – Aug. 14, 2014 – After a disappointing two-week trip through the Midwest, Gregg Satterlee returned to his home region and returned to form with a victory in Thursday night's Fulton Bank 50 at Delaware International Speedway.
Satterlee, 30, of Indiana, Pa., survived a close call in traffic and turned back challenges from Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., at the half-mile oval in southern Delaware, earning $10,050 for his third career World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory.
"We had kind of a rough couple of weeks, but that's part of traveling," said Satterlee, who scored just one top-10 finish in four WoO LMS appearances in traveling with the WoO LMS to Illinois and Wisconsin in late July and early August. "We're learning and getting better. I'm sure if we hadn't done all that traveling we wouldn't be standing up here (in victory lane) tonight."
Sixth-starting Lanigan, the two-time WoO LMS champion and current series points leader, was second at the finish, 0.343 seconds behind Satterlee. Fourth-starting Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., was just behind the two leaders in third, while Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., advanced from eighth to finish fourth. Seventh-starting Ross Robinson of Georgetown, Del., rounded out the top five in a race slowed by four cautions.
Satterlee's victory featured plenty of drama. Starting from the pole, his Satterlee Petroleum Distributors-sponsored Rocket Chassis got the jump on outside polesitter Amanda Whaley of Millsboro, Del., who quickly dropped to the tail of the field after she pushed far up the track entering the first corner.
Whaley had made history earlier in the evening when she became the first female driver to ever make the redraw for a WoO LMS event with her second-place heat race finish. But her lap-one miscue dashed chance to become the first female to win a WoO LMS A-Main.
Whaley's push up the track created a scramble among the front few rows, and Lanigan took advantage to charge from sixth to second on the race's opening lap. He soon began applying pressure to Satterlee, making low-side bids for the lead through the race's opening laps with Hubbard lurking just behind in third.
The leaders caught the tail of the field by lap 14, setting up a tense battle. Satterlee opened the door for Lanigan to take the lead when he attempted to drive around tail-running Whaley on lap 17 and slid high in turn two. But Lanigan repeated Satterlee's mistake on the following lap, giving Satterlee room to muscle his way back into the lead on lap 18.
The excitement continued on the following lap when Satterlee got into the back of Nick Davis of Millsboro, Del., while trying to put him a lap down. The contact turned Davis sideways directly in front of Satterlee, but Satterlee stayed in the throttle and used more contact to push Davis' car up the banking and out of his path.
Satterlee made it through the incident without stopping, allowing him to retain his position at the front of the field as the race went under caution for Davis' stalled machine.
"I got into the one lapped car and turned him around. I didn't mean to do that, but he kind of come down on me," Satterlee said of the contact that nearly cost him the race. "When he hit me I had to just spin him out so I didn't get collected with him.
"I hit him way harder than I thought I was going to. I was hoping that the front bumper wasn't bent down into the racetrack or back into the tire. But luckily it was all good. These Rocket race cars are real strong and can take some abuse."
The caution for Davis calmed things at the front of the field as Satterlee began to edge away from Lanigan through the race's middle portions. But traffic again came into play in the final 10 laps, allowing Lanigan to close the gap and bring Hubbard along with him. The three leaders raced nose to tail through the closing circuits, but Satterlee kept his car glued to the track's dominant bottom groove and held on to claim the victory.
Lanigan settled for the runner-up finish in his Keyser Manufacturing-sponsored Club 29 Race Car, padding his already healthy WoO LMS points lead with his 23rd top-five finish in 27 A-Mains this season.
"We had a good hot rod," said Lanigan, a three-time winner at Delaware who was the runner-up at the track for the second straight year after fishing second to fellow WoO LMS regular Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., in 2013. "It sucks to run second, but sometimes you gotta do it."
The race's four yellow flags all appeared in the first half of the race. The lap-18 caution for Satterlee's tangle with Davis was the first break in the action, and a mid-pack tangle on the ensuing restart resulted in Andrew Mullins of Laurel, Del., spinning in turn and hometown driver Kerry King Sr. getting into the wall at the exit of turn two.
The third yellow waved when Whaley's left-rear tire blew, leaving rubber all over the front straightaway. The final caution appeared on the restart for a tangle involving Mullins, Davis and Pancho Lawler of Glenville, Pa.
The Fulton Bank 50 kicked off a tripleheader weekend for the WoO LMS in the Mid-Atlantic region. Action moves across Chesapeake Bay to Potomac Speedway in Budds Creek, Md., on Friday while a visit to Winchester (Va.) Speedway wraps up the weekend on Saturday.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com. Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at Twitter.com/WoOLateModels and Facebook at Facebook.com/WorldofOutlaws.
Results of World of Outlaws Late Model Series Fulton Bank 50 at Delaware International Speedway (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (1) Gregg Satterlee/50 $10,050
2. (6) Darrell Lanigan/50 $5,650
3. (4) Austin Hubbard/50 $3,000
4. (8) Tim Fuller/50 $2,550
5. (7) Ross Robinson/50 $2,500
6. (11) Clint Smith/50 $2,300
7. (3) Donald Lingo Jr./50 $1,400
8. (10) Rick Eckert/50 $1,950
9. (17) Kenny Pettyjohn/50 $1,400
10. (9) Shane Clanton/50 $1,650
11. (20) Tim McCreadie/50 $1,650
12. (16) Frank Heckenast Jr./50 $1,800
13. (12) Eric Wells/50 $1,500
14. (19) Chub Frank/50 $1,500
15. (13) Morgan Bagley/50 $1,400
16. (14) Boom Briggs/50 $1,350
17. (18) Pancho Lawler/50 $770
18. (21) Nick Davis/49 $750
19. (15) Andrew Mullins/25 $730
20. (2) Amanda Whaley/24 $700
21. (5) Jason Covert/23 $700
22. (22) Kerry King Sr./18 $700
23. (23) Chase Junghans/9 $1,250
24. (24) Dan Stone/3 $725
* Earnings include Winners Circle program and cash contingency award bonuses
Time of Race: 29 Mins. 56 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.343 seconds
Yellow Flags: 4 (laps 18, 18, 24 & 24)
Lap Leaders: Satterlee (1-16, 18-50); Lanigan (17)
Provisional Starters: Junghans (WoO points), Stone (WoO points)
WoO LMS 'Bonus Bucks' Winner: Ross Robinson ($500)
Ohlins Shocks Time Trial Results (Position/Driver/No./Hometown/Best Lap):
Group A
1. Tim Fuller (19), Watertown, N.Y., 19.063
2. Austin Hubbard (11), Seaford, Del., 19.148
3. Morgan Bagley (14m), Longview, Texas, 19.237
4. Boom Briggs (99b), Bear Lake, Pa., 19.241
5. Darrell Lanigan (29), Union, Ky., 19.317
6. Rick Eckert (1), York, Pa., 19.37
7. Vic Coffey (32), Caledonia, N.Y., 19.388
8. Chub Frank (1*), Bear Lake, Pa., 19.407
9. Kenny Pettyjohn (38), Millsboro, Del., 19.423
10. Gregg Satterlee (22), Rochester Mills, Pa., 19.445
11. Shane Clanton (25), Zebulon, Ga., 19.472
12. Ricky Elliott (88), Seaford, Del., 19.488
13. Nick Davis (92), Millsboro, Del., 19.52
14. Jamie Lathroum (6), Mechanicsville, Md., 19.605
15. Brandon Dennis (10), Harrington, Del., 19.831
16. Dan Stone (21d), Thompson, Pa., 20.18
17. Dominic Defino (1MD), York, Pa., 20.219
Group B
1. Ross Robinson (7), Georgetown, Del., 19.377
2. Donald Lingo Jr. (55L), Millsboro, Del., 19.436
3. Clint Smith (44), Senoia, Ga., 19.476
4. Chase Junghans (18c), Manhattan, Kan., 19.523
5. Jason Covert (72), York Haven, Pa., 19.565
6. Amanda Whaley (44w), Millsboro, Del., 19.591
7. Andrew Mullins (51), Laurel, Del., 19.67
8. Kerry King Sr. (K&B), Delmar, Del., 19.683
9. Pancho Lawler (93), Glenville, Pa., 19.688
10. Frank Heckenast Jr. (99jr), Frankfort, Ill., 19.703
11. Tim McCreadie (39), Watertown, N.Y., 19.767
12. Eric Wells (18), Hazard, Ky., 19.785
13. Mark Byram (45), Georgetown, Del., 19.806
14. Danny Snyder (4s), Green Lane, Pa., 19.964
15. Rob Schirmer (118), Ellendale, Del., 20.437
16. Joe Warren (11), Georgetown, Del., 20.518
17. Mark Pettyjohn (19p), Milton, Del., 20.688
Heat No. 1 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Fuller, Lanigan, Clanton, Bagley, K. Pettyjohn, Davis, Defino, Coffey, Dennis.
Heat No. 2 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Hubbard, Satterlee, Eckert, Briggs, Frank, Elliott, Stone, Lathroum.
Heat No. 3 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Robinson, Covert, Smith, Mullins, Lawler, McCreadie, Byram, M. Pettyjohn, Schirmer.
Heat No. 4 (10 laps – Top 4 Transfer): Lingo, Whaley, Wells, Heckenast, King, Snyder, Warren, Junghans.
B-Main No. 1 (12 laps – Top 3 Transfer): K. Pettyjohn, Frank, Davis, Elliott, Coffey, Stone, Dennis, Defino. Did not start: Lathroum.
B-Main No. 2 (12 laps – Top 3 Transfer): Lawler, McCreadie, King, Byram, M.Pettyjohn, Junghans, Snyder, Warren. Did not start: Schirmer.


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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday met with members of the Pontifical Leonine College of Anagni, a regional seminary for several of the Diocese around the city of Rome. The College was founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1897.
In his address, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of forming seminarians in "a climate of prayer and fraternity." This atmosphere, he said, allows seminarians to grow closer to "the sentiments of Jesus Christ, His love for the Father and for the Church," and His dedication to the people of God.
The Pope warned the seminarians that they are not preparing to be functionaries, but true shepherds in the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Being a "good shepherd" in His image is something no one can achieve on his own – but Pope Francis reminded the seminarians that "it is not our work… It is the work of the Holy Spirit." Only by allowing oneself to be shaped – as clay is shaped by the potter — will seminarians be able "to shepherd the people of God and guide them "along the Way that is Jesus."
This, the Holy Father said, "means meditating every day on the Gospel… experiencing the mercy of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation… eating the Eucharist with faith and with love… being men of prayer."
"If you are not disposed to follow along this street," the Pope said, "it would be better for you to have the courage to seek another path."
Pope Francis concluded his address by calling on the seminarians to take seriously the words of the Prophets: "Woe to the wicked Shepherds who pasture themselves and not their flocks." "May this 'woe,'" he said, make you reflect seriously on your future."
Text from Vatican Radio website

subset: commoncrawl


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A group for those of us who like reading and books. Fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry... everything goes.
Members: 817
Latest Activity: Mar 4
Hello to all our new (and old) members! We'd love to hear from you; please take the time to introduce yourself either on the forum or the wall.
Feel free to discuss the books you're reading at the moment, your favorite authors or works, and so on. I'm sure everyone has a book they think others here might find interesting!
Also, don't forget to check out the page Books by A|N Members Who are Published Authors, located just under the members section on your right.
Books of Interest to Atheists and Skeptics
Breaking The Spell by Daniel Dennett
A Devil's Chaplain, by Richard Dawkins
The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
Godless, by Dan Barker
Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris
Why I am not a Christian, by Bertrand Russell
Sites for Bibliotaphs
The Internet Archive
Project Gutenburg
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Meh, sorry, took me longer to get back to this than I thought it would.
Capitalize Ontological Argument in the title.
Okay, Paragraph 1: "... major apologetic argumentsis the ..." You've got another incident of the space getting eaten by the pasting between formats, after the link.
"It is so bizarre in fact that even many apologists today seem to shy away from it and it was rejected by none other than Saint Thomas Aquinas." The second sentence has two independent clauses. You need a comma before the 'and'.
"In simplest terms this argument states that God must exist if we can conceive of him as something that is greater than anything else we can imagine." You should have a comma after 'terms'. This sentence is ... wordy. Hmm. Maybe try '... of Him (capital H) as greater than ...'
"In this way it is an a prioriargument for God that rests on human reason alone – God is basically self-evident by virtue of the fact that we can imagine his greatness." Comma after 'way'. Another space got eaten after the link. I might swap the hyphen for a colon, but that's a stylistic choice. 'Basically' is an unnecessary adverb. Nuke it.
Paragraph 2: Comma after 'purposes'. Comma after 'Proslogion'. Comma after 'thought' (inside of the double-quotes).
"Maximally great entity" doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps 'greatest entity' would be better.
The second half of that sentence is also rough. I might resort to parentheses. "... greatest entity (by definition, God) exists in our mind." Some prefer to use hyphens. Your call.
Then, you need a comma before the 'because', since it's acting as a conjunction between two independent clauses. Plus, I'd swap out both incidences of 'to exist' with either the noun or gerund form: 'existence' or 'existing'. Using a prepositional phrase as a nominative is very archaic. I'm sure Anselm did that himself, but if you're not directly quoting, ditch it.
Oxford comma after 'omnibenevolence', and ditch the comma after 'forth'.
You then have an issue, since "The ultimate greatness of omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, and so forth must then be real, because we are conceiving of ultimate
perfection, and it is "more perfect" to be real than to exist only in the
imagination," contains 3 independent clauses (you can see where I inserted the commas before 'because' and 'and'), the definition of a run-on sentence. I might slip in an ellipsis before the and. It depends upon how formal in structure you consider this article to be, but you have to break it up somehow.
Paragraph 3: Comma after the first 'alone'. "... reasoning and intuition alone are enough ..." Comma after 'opined'. Shakespeare is dead, man; it's time to let go of 'thusly'. You could substitute in 'thus' or better yet, cut it entirely.
Paragraph 4: Oxford comma after 'being'. Comma after 'real'.
Paragraph 5: Comma after the first two incidences of 'invisible'. "... is demonstrated by the fact ..."
Paragraph 6: Comma after Anselm, in the second sentence. The last sentence is a bit of a mess: "It seems Saint (written out, since you've written it out previously in the article) Anselm used the doubly-faulty (insert hyphen) approach: not only is God real because you can conceive of His perfection and greatness, but also it is illogical to think otherwise." I stripped both 'that's and inserted the colon to make it less wordy. I also dropped the 'It seems' in front of the name, instead of after.
Paragraph 7: "First, it is a fallacy to state that ..." Comma after the first 'mind' in sentence 2. Comma after the first 'horse'. Change 'photo' to 'photograph'. Comma after 'way'. "We can conceive of all manner of perfect (lose the comma here) and imperfect things, for that matter, but this ..." ('things' was also in the wrong spot)
Paragraph 8: Thefirst two sentences are a bit ... wooly. The second sentence is particularly rough. Existence is the state of being real and tangible. Rewrite those.
Capitalize 'Ontological Argument'. Make it 'freely accepts'. "... can conceive of them."
Fourth sentence is very good.
Paragraph 9: I'm not wild about 'signpost'. See if you can come up with a better metaphor. "Most of us now, in the 21st century, are ..." Cut 'likely'. "... who felt these things were acceptable or perhaps somehow virtuous."
"Would you feel they were perfect? Or would you see these beliefs as proof of their very imperfect nature?" (major cuts and restructuring in that last sentence; compare with the version in your article)
Paragraph 10: Cut the comma after 'condemn'. Spell out 'Saint' again. Capitalize 'Ontological Argument'.
Paragraph 11: The first sentence is a bit of a monstrosity. Take another crack at that and split up your thoughts a little better. Capitalize Ontological Argument in the second sentence.
Paragraph 12: "... wrong, (insert comma) because it requires the acceptance of a willing and complete suspension of disbelief." Second sentence, cut 'by'.
Thanks again Joseph. One thing I just discovered about the program that we use to post Examiner articles is that you have to proof the articles again after you publish them (should be a no-brainer right?). Trust me, most of the errors I made fair and square, but the spacing issues you pointed out were not there in the original word document I cut-and-pasted from, I just checked.
Maybe from now on I will publish them late at night, print them and then do a solid proof reading before anyone has a chance to read them. I'll still make mistakes as I am one who needs a good editor anyway, but that might minimize them somewhat.
Ohhhhhh, yeah, brevity can be a guideline, then. You already demonstrated the point of the disproof. That was just a dialogue of it.
Heh, yeah, I don't know that I'd add the Aquinas comment, myself. It fits in more with what I write, in comedy, not a more dry discussion. I can definitely see the argument for leaving it out. It's an entertainment quip, not an actual argument.
Sure, you can add that in, at the end. I'll feel the need to go through the article with a finer attention to detail, if I accept that. I have a more lengthy e-mail I have to write, before i get to that. I'm just cleaning out my mailbox right now. I'll post any further corrections after I do that.
By the way Joseph, I almost included the example "Ontological proof for the non-existence of God" that you mentioned but one of the things that suck about the place I am posting my articles is that I already blow the article size limitation guidelines right out of the water.
I made all your recommended changes except the addition of the Aquinas comment in the last paragraph. I agree with your point but (and not sure why really) just didn't "feel it" at this time. I might add it later though.
Do you mind if I give you "props" in the comment section for catching my errors and giving helpful thoughts?
No worries. There could be more. I only really started paying attention to them in paragraph 6, when they started getting flagrant.
It's a valid target to go after. As easy a target as it is, I've heard people bring it up, too. As long as it's brought up, it needs to be knocked down.
Thanks a lot for all the thoughts (and especially for catching my idiotic spelling errors!!).
I have to admit, I thought long and hard about the value of actually including a refutation of this moronic "proof of God", but I have actually been confronted with it several times recently so I thought it would be nice to have an article posted so that when someone poses it to me again I can just refer them to the article rather than taking the time to debate the issue.
I will go correct the spelling errors now. Can't believe I did that. My wife points out my lack of attention to detail. ;-p
Paragraph 6: According to Anselm "The fool said in his hear, 'there is no God'.
Insert the t in 'heart'.
But certainly that same fool, having heard what I just said, 'something greater than cannot be though,' understands what he heard, and what he understands is in his thought…
Insert the t in the first 'thought'.
Paragraph 9: Most of us here in the 21st century are convinced that genocide, rape, torture, misogyny, slavery, racismand human sacrificeare all quite bad things.
Your spacing is off, after 'racism' and 'sacrifice'. You also left out the Oxford comma after 'racism'.
Just consider your likely reaction if you were to meet a person who felt that these things were ok, or were perhaps even virtuous for some reason.
There's no comma before the 'or', since it's not an independent clause following it.
Paragraph 10: ... but actually commanding, such acts.
No comma after 'commanding'.
So the third challenge to the ontological argument is that when conceiving of the greatest, most perfect, thing there are reasons to
challenge the assumption that the thing imagined would be the God of the
Move the comma from after 'perfect' to after 'thing'.
Last paragraph: A total abandonment of human reason is necessitated to accept that merely by imagining God not only makes him real, it actually requires that he be real.
That's a comma splice. Either add a conjunction after the comma, split it into two sentences, or replace the comma with a semicolon.
Also, I'd add, in your last section, that an argument is worse than wrong if other apologists rip it apart, as Thomas Aquinas did. :-D
Heh, that one is even worth mentioning? Besides being obviously ridiculous in that you can't define something into existence, there's the ludicrous flaw in that existence isn't a property of something. My personal favorite is from Douglas Gasking:
1. The creation of the world is the most marvelous achievement imaginable.
2. The merit of an achievement is the product of (a) its intrinsic quality, and (b) the ability of its creator.
3. The greater the disability (or handicap) of the creator, the more impressive the achievement.
4. The most formidable handicap for a creator would be non-existence.
5. Therefore if we suppose that the universe is the product of an existent creator we can conceive a greater being — namely, one who created everything while not existing.
6. Therefore, God does not exist
(pasted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument)
According to many, from Virginia Woolf to modern neurologists, the human brain is capable of perceiving a maximum of 6 things at any one time. The more usual average i 5, the numbers 1 to 5 or letters A to E for example. That means that the largest thing I can understand is 6 if I'm unusually talented. Does this mean that things that come in 7's are divine? Just because I can't think of them all at one time?
Try the experiment: how many letters can you think of/picture in one image and at one time? At which point do you start reading left to right to get them all in?
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Over the weekend, we were so excited to visit a cupcake shop in Port Credit (in Mississauga) that Clara dropped by a couple of weeks ago accidentally and fell in love with. If you've ever been to the Port Credit Area, you know that it has many shops, restaurants, a quaint park and a marina.
The Social Cupcake is located on the main lakeshore road so you can't miss it! It was actually their one year anniversary over the weekend and they had an amazing deal of 50% off a dozen cupcakes!
They had a display of mini cupcakes - free to try -and a huge chocolate cake to celebrate their one year anniversary. We met with Jennifer, one of the owners at the shop and you can really see the appreciation she has for all her customers! Check out the big cake below.
How delicious do these mini cupcakes look?! They were free to sample.
For those of you with allergies, The Social Cupcake is a peanut and tree-nut free bakery and they offer gluten-free cupcakes, which Clara picked up for her sister. Not a lot of bakeries cater to this group of customers, so it's great to see a wide range of delicious cupcakes for everyone here!
They also take orders for cakes and cupcakes for special events.
You can see how you can create your customer cake or cupcakes here.
They usually have the most popular flavours like: Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet, and Cookies & Cream everyday with 3 to 4 varied flavours. On the day of our visit, they had: Stuffed Lemon, Raspberry Snowball, Chocolate Salted Caramel and Rainbow Vanilla.
Click here to see their full list of flavours. I really want to try to Boston Cream!
I have to say, the Raspberry Snowball was my personal favourite - raspberry cupcake with cream cheese buttercream topped with coconut. I'm usually not a fan of coconut but this was just too good!
My second favourite was the Stuffed Lemon - lemon cupcake filled with lemon curd (yum!) topped with lemon cream cheese icing. I know it sounds like a lot of lemon, but it wasn't overwhelming at all, but a perfect way to taste the lemon flavour.
How a perfect cupcake should be: soft & moist cake with just the right amount of icing. Even though the icing looks highly stacked on the cupcakes, it is actually weightless & easy to eat.
They had the perfect cake to icing ratio.
As you can see, Clara and I picked up a good amount of cupcakes for ourselves and for our friends!
Thank you to Jennifer at The Social Cupcake for having us! If you guys are in the area, be sure to check out this delicious little shop and let us know which flavour is YOUR favourite.


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Six years have slipped away since St. Paul's Theairra Taylor last played on the Target Center floor.
As a prep star at St. Paul Central, she helped lead the Minutemen to a two-year run of dominance that likely will never be duplicated. Central was undefeated en route to winning the 2007 big-school state championship. A year later, Central defended the crown in stunning fashion with a cast of lesser-known stars led by Taylor.
"The memories of being here are incredible," said Taylor, a Minnesota Lynx rookie free agent. "Some great things happened here, games and moments you will never forget."
Taylor is hoping more are on the horizon.
After signing up late for the WNBA free-agent combine in Nashville during the NCAA women's final four, the guard played well enough to earn an invitation to training camp with the Lynx. She signed with the club last week.
"It's a blessing to be here," she said. "I've learned more in the past couple of days than I've learned in the past couple of years. It is so awesome. I am learning so much."
Taylor, who transferred from Como Park after her freshman year, helped Central to an 81-11 mark in her three years playing with the Minutemen.
Her college career at Iowa was slowed by three surgeries to her anterior cruciate ligament over her first two seasons with the Hawkeyes. But she ended her five-year stay by playing in 101 consecutive games, including 70 during her junior and senior seasons.
With the first Lynx cuts coming Tuesday, Taylor is hoping to make an impression.
In Monday's exhibition game against the Australian national team, she played the entire second quarter, recording two assists and scoring on a nifty scoop layup after a drive from the left side.
"For me to have this opportunity is a blessing," she said.
Waltiea Rolle scored 17 points and Maya Moore had 14 in an 82-66 Lynx win.
Overseas duties are over for Lynx veterans Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Janel McCarville and Rebekkah Brunson.
All but Brunson attended shootaround Tuesday. The three also participated in warm-ups, but didn't play.
Brunson has an agreement with Lynx management that she will be given extra time to rest following her offseason schedule.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said Brunson will skip the team's preseason games Friday and Sunday in Orlando and meet the team Monday at Target Center for Media Day.
Wondering why Australian national stars like Lauren Jackson and Elizabeth Cambage weren't playing against the Lynx?
Under the WNBA's collective bargaining agreement, those national teams aren't allowed to play against WNBA teams in exhibition games.
Reeve continues to heal from back surgery in early April.
"I am limited (in physical movement), but my mouth and lungs are good," she said. "I look like a little old lady getting up from a chair."
She said she is expected to be healed and pain free by early July.
Lynx reserve center Devereaux Peters will have surgery this week on her left knee. That leaves Minnesota's top two reserves, Peters and Monica Wright, on the sideline following knee surgeries. Both are out indefinitely. … Reeve said three players will be cut prior to Tuesday's practice to bring the team's roster to 13 players, 11 active. Entering Monday's exhibition, she said she knew who the three players would be, but didn't identify them.


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Charlie Hunter Trio - Let The Bells Ring On (2015)
MP3 320 kbps CBR | 43:38 min | 102 MB
Genre: Jazz | Label: Charlie Hunter Music
The term "Charlie Hunter Trio" can mean a lot of different things, depending on who is playing alongside Hunter's guitar/bass Novax and the drums of someone else. That meant a saxophonist in the 90s and the first half of the aughts. In 2007, John Ellis' sax was replaced by Erik Deutsch's keyboards (for Mistico) and now, that third member is Lounge Lizard and Jazz Passengers trombone specialist Curtis Fowlkes.
The association among the three goes back many years; Fowlkes appeared on Hunter's Right Now Move quintet release from 2003 and Previte with Hunter make up the core players for their free-improv Groundtruther project. With Hunter once again getting the urge to expand from the duo format he's enjoyed the last several years with drummer Scott Amendola, he called in Fowlkes to be that third voice.
On June 2, Hunter leads Fowlkes and Previte in this new/old trio from Let The Bells Ring On, expected for release June 2, 2015 on Hunter's own Charlie Hunter Music.
It's readily apparent from the above stream of "Those People", an advance track from Bells, that the extra 'voice' instantly makes the music distinguishable from, say, the sparer encounters with Amendola. Fowlkes adds a jazzier presence that perfectly complements Hunter's and Previte's tough Memphis groove. The guitarist cedes nearly all the lead duties to the 'bone player, but the rhythm work bubbling just underneath is just as attention-grabbing and Fowlkes plays locked closely attuned to his two-man, three instrument rhythm section.
Charlie Hunter continues to organically make happy music that's hard to classify but easy to recognize as his own. No matter who rounds out that trio. ~ S. Victor Aaron
01. Anthem: USA (4:04)
02. These People (4:19)
03. Pho-Kus-On-Ho-Ho-Kus (5:37)
04. Let The Bells Ring On (4:55)
05. Hillbilly Heroine Chic (4:50)
06. Welcome To Nutley (4:33)
07. Fellini Farm Team (4:38)
08. Ojai Housecoat Of Arms (3:31)
09. Vernel (4:21)
10. Spence (2:50)
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text:
1) This is Podolski's moment
Arsenal fans love to sing about how they won the league at Old Trafford in 2002 and, although the prospect of giving the returning Robin van Persie a guard of honour must be sickening to some, at least Manchester United will not become the first team to win a trophy at the Emirates. Perhaps it will work in Arsenal's favour that a potentially bleary-eyed United wrapped up their 20th title on Monday night. A small blessing, though, and the sight of Van Persie will infuriate the home fans, who saw another star player leave last summer. Yet the problem was not only that Arsenal lost Van Persie but also that Arsène Wenger did not adequately replace him. Olivier Giroud is not a flop. Let's not go that far. But Arsenal still downsized. Giroud will be suspended against United, though, which means that there could be a place for another of Wenger's summer signings, Lukas Podolski, who has hardly been a roaring success, although he has not been helped by a niggling ankle injury which could require surgery. He has been out of the picture in recent weeks but this is a big chance for him to make everyone forget about Van Persie and prove that he deserves the central role he craves. Jacob Steinberg
2) Is it time for Ben Arfa?
Newcastle's struggles this season can partly be attributed to Hatem Ben Arfa's injury problems. Without the Frenchman, they have lacked a spark and often resorted to falling back on a long-ball style which is unlikely to endear Alan Pardew to Newcastle's supporters for too long. Ben Arfa is a player who can conjure something out of nothing, such as his outlandish solo goals against Blackburn and Bolton last season, but Newcastle have been unable to rely on that ingenuity this year. After recovering from his hamstring injury, Ben Arfa has made three appearances off the bench, but with Newcastle in need of points to secure their Premier League status, the visit of a Liverpool side that will be missing Luis Suárez could be the perfect time to unleash the winger. JS
3) Tottenham beware
Roberto Martínez could not have sounded more pleased with Wigan's performances in their past two matches, against Manchester City and West Ham. Just to be clear, they lost both, scoring in neither, and in recent weeks it has been possible to detect a certain arrogance about Wigan which seems to be hurting their chances of survival. They can be a great side to watch but sometimes there is a sense that they are too pleased about their own brilliance to actually capitalise on it, which was the case when their sterile dominance over 10-man QPR meant they drew a game that they should have won. So now they find themselves being written off. Again. And that's exactly what they want us to do. Logically a Tottenham side revitalised by Gareth Bale should have no problems at the DW Stadium and yet, in a strange way, because they're a strange team, no one would be surprised by a Wigan win. JS
4) West Brom's slide
Many folks foresaw Steve Clarke struggling in his debut campaign as a No1 manager but the only bother that West Bromwich Albion have been in all season came via that slapstick Peter Odemwingie skit. Still, the early-season challenge for Europe has long since faded and the task now is to ensure a top-half finish – anything else would be a disappointment given their start to the season. Southampton, however, are well equipped to leapfrog them during the run-in and fulfil Nicola Cortese's ambition of not merely avoiding relegation but doing so in style. Finishing in the top 10 may just convince Roy Hodgson to give Rickie Lambert and Jack Cork (as well Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne and Luke Shaw) a chance and remind Didier Deschamps that Morgan Schneiderlin is French and fantastic. Paul Doyle
5) QPR's impending implosion
Queens Park Rangers' season has been a case study in self-destruction. From misguided recruitment to limp performances and barmy red cards, own-goals and goofs, they've seldom been anything other than laughable. The owners have been made to look like fools but naive ambition is a forgivable enough offence. Perhaps more so than excessive caution. Reading are guilty not of investing badly but of underinvesting. They did not jeopardise their financial future, which is obviously good, but nor did they give themselves realistic prospects of surviving, which is bad, especially as they made the same mistake when getting relegated five years ago. The upshot of all this failure is that both sides are going down, meaning Sunday's match between the pair is about little more than salvaging pride, of which Reading's players have shown more this season. PD
6) Swansea's Davies stealing the show
Swansea lifted their first major trophy this season and played their distinctive eye-catching style, yet their achievements remain understated. The absence of Michu from the PFA Player of the Year top six was surprising but Ben Davies would be entitled to feel even more hard done-by to be overlooked for the Young Player of the Year. He had almost zero senior experience when he was thrown into the first team to replace the injured Neil Taylor three games into this season but quickly gave the impression that he had been there for years. His composure and tidy dynamism make him perfectly suited to Swansea and, indeed, to Wales, for whom he now has senior caps. At Stamford Bridge this weekend he will come up against Eden Hazard, who was nominated for the senior and young player of the year gongs – the Belgian is brilliant but he has not been as consistently impressive as Davies this season: and the last time they met Hazard got so frustrated he wound up booting a ballboy. PD
7) A preference for defeat?
Apart perhaps from flying badgers and philanthropic bankers, few things seem as unnatural as fans hoping their own team lose. Yet this weekend some supporters will find themselves feeling perverse. Oh yes. A minority of Arsenal fans, for instance, may hope that Robin van Persie fires Manchester United to victory at the Emirates to ram home to the Arsenal hierarchy the need for a change of policy; similarly, many Stoke fans must hope that Norwich win at the Britannia this weekend to hasten Tony Pulis towards the exit. Other fans will believe that Pulis has earned the right to show that he has learned from this season's mistakes and will evolve for next term, but others are convinced that such a change from Pulis goes beyond unnatural to totally impossible. PD
8) Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit
With second place all but guaranteed after the most feeble title defence since the director Andrew Dominik insisted naming his movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford wasn't a plot spoiler, it will be interesting to see how Roberto Mancini's petulance manifests itself when his side entertain West Ham. During last weekend's reverse at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, the City manager sent Joleon Lescott on to play as a makeshift centre-forward for the closing minutes, stopping short of forcing the centre-half to carry a placard bearing the message: "Hey Sheikh Mansour, look what the gaffer's reduced to", presumably in an attempt to draw attention to the paucity of decent options available on his bench. Underneath that trademark blue and white scarf there is clearly a resolutely brass neck. Standing in the adjacent technical area to Mancini on Saturday lunchtime will be none other than Mr Sam Allardyce, another manager with previous in the field of dropping sledgehammer subtle hints to his employers through the medium of naming (or, more pertinently, not naming) replacements. With both sides having little to play for, the battle to see who can make the most sarcastic substitutions could be the most fiercely fought of the match. Barry Glendenning
9) Wilson or Di Canio?
In this week's Football Weekly … Extra, pyramid-inverting award-winning Blizzard editor Jonathan Wilson observed that Sunderland's next three matches are against Aston Villa, Stoke and Southampton and that a point from each match would do all four teams quite nicely, thank you very much. In what can only be described as an innocence-busting endorsement for skulduggery of the most snakebelly-low cunning, Wilson went on to suggest that if he were manager of his hometown club, he'd suggest to suits from Villa, Stoke and Southampton that a spot of mutual back-scratching might be in order to keep everyone concerned in the Premier League and send some other shower of underachieving mugs down to the Championship. Thankfully, for the sake of the few shreds of the Premier League's integrity that remain intact, Sunderland are not managed by Wilson, but by Paolo Di Canio, who is an Italian. BG
10) There really isn't much to look forward to about Everton v Fulham
Go on, guess who got last pick when it came to looking forward to something in this round of Premier League fixtures? BG


text: I'm having problems with one of my packages that includes a python module. The package is vips. I am not a python person, so this may be simple. The last time I built the package, there were several module binary files that got installed appropriately. For example: % dpkg --listfiles python-vipscc| grep vmaskmodule.a /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/vipsCC/vmaskmodule.a /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/vipsCC/vmaskmodule.a Now when I rebuild the package with no changes at all, I get something like this: % dpkg --contents python-vipscc_7.34.2-1_amd64.deb| grep vmaskmodule.a -rw-r--r-- root/root 1127858 2013-09-15 09:33 ./usr/share/pyshared/vipsCC/vmaskmodule.a lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2013-09-15 09:33 ./usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/vipsCC/vmaskmodule.a -> ../../../../share/pyshared/vipsCC/vmaskmodule.a Okay, this example shows a newer version of the package, but when I rebuild the exact same version as before, I get the same result. This looks like a bug to me, but I'm not even sure where to report the bug. What thing is responsible for having decided to move this module to /usr/share and make a symlink, assuming that's what happened, even though it's architecture-dependent? Is this a problem with my packaging, or is there a bug in whatever is doing this? My best guess is that this is an issue with dh_python2, though I don't know whether a change in dh_python2 is exposing a long-standing problem with the upstream package, or whether this is a new bug, or whether this is a difference because of fewer python versions being available or what. Thanks. This is blocking me from uploading a new version of vips. -- Jay Berkenbilt <firstname.lastname@example.com>


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Well my shop exists and I don't clone XD...perhaps I'll just run plat/HG/SS/White/White2 for legendaries when I get bored.
@boss...I have a nearly complete national dex and more than likely have whatever you need. The only thing I don't have right now is a deoxys and genesect. I believe I have everything else (even the legendaries I'm looking for, except they aren't flawless...which is what I want. I got them before I learned RNG). I will do dex trades if needed.


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Your current filters are…
There's an adage in journalism that three of anything makes a trend. But, you and your two pals 'liking' something doesn't make it the next big thing. Internet trends are surprising, whimsical, and fast. The best trending indices are targeted and personal, distilling what you'll like from what's popular.
Learn how to track rising, breaking, and spiking trends from broad sources. Identify what works for your audience and use trends to build content that is compelling and fresh. Don't waste time on concepts that won't work. Find out how personalized trends can offer programming insights and inform content creation decisions. And learn when to skip the waiting and wag the dog.
United States United States, Austin
9th–13th March 2012


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Contributor: Scott Allswang
Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts has banned a Christian group from campus because the group requires student leaders to adhere to "basic biblical truths of Christianity." The decision to ban the group, called the Tufts Christian Fellowship, was made by officials from the university's student government, specifically the Tufts Community Union Judiciary.
The ban means the group "will lose the right to use the Tufts name in its title or at any activities, schedule events or reserve university space through the Office for Campus Life," according to the Tufts Daily. Additionally, Tufts Christian Fellowship will be unable to receive money from a pool that students are required to pay into and that is specifically set aside for student groups.
"TCF is the Tufts chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, an evangelical Christian mission on college campuses across the country, and also has ties to the university Chaplaincy," the Tufts Daily reports.
"The group had been operating in a state of suspended recognition after the Judiciary found that the group's constitution excluded students from applying to leadership positions based on their beliefs. The clauses in question require that anyTCF member who wishes to apply for a leadership role must adhere to a series of tenets called a Basis of Faith, or eight 'basic Biblical truths of Christianity.'
"The Judiciary last month recommended that TCF move the belief-based leadership requirements from the constitution's bylaws, which are legally binding, to its mission statement, which is not.
The group is planning to appeal the student board's decision.
"We're deciding to appeal this decision because we feel like just the purpose of our organization is to...encourage understanding and celebration of each belief [in the Basis of Faith], and the best way to fulfill that purpose is to have leaders that are centered on and unified by these beliefs," a student member of the group told the Tufts Daily.
The student member of the group added, "We feel like we have the right to be selective on the basis of belief for our leaders since we're a student group that is trying to encourage understanding about a faith-based set of beliefs."
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The lights are on
Anticipation is running high for Square Enix's Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game that hopes to restore the beloved sci-fi franchise to its former glory. In this new trailer, entitled "Cities," we get a glimpse of some of the detailed open-world environments in the games.
Narrated by game director Jean-Francis Degas and other key staffers, we get to see their interpretation of urban areas like Detroit, Montreal, and Hengsha (an island off of Shanghai). It's pretty impressive stuff, and definitely has me excited about entering the world of Human Revolution.
No one has commented on this article.


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text:
San Francisco Masturbator Performs For San Francisco Bus Crowd
A persistent public masturbator brightened everyone's morning on Wednesday by first jerking off outside a hospital before being chased off and then performing his act for people gathered at a nearby bus stop.
The jerkoff was first spotted outside the California Pacific Medical Center in fancy Presidio Heights. He was "asked to leave" and police were called. By the time the cops arrived, the 35-year-old masturbator was at a bus stop "and continued masturbating in front of people waiting for the bus," according to the Mercury News.
Then the cops shot him a dozen times and dumped his body off a cliff in the Presidio. Or, actually, they arrested him for jerking off in public and also for a bunch of outstanding warrants.
In time, the city will recover from this outrage.


text:
Is this your business? Click here to claim and manage the details.
Lassen Medical Group
Red Bluff, CA 96080-4356
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Hours of operation
- Monday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Tuesday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Wednesday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Thursday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Saturday CLOSED
- Sunday CLOSED
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Skip the waiting room. Get urgent care by phone! Call PlushCare and get diagnosed, treated & prescribed medication by top U.S. doctors from your phone. Call (888) 861-8280 or learn more at PlushCare.com
About Lassen Medical Group
Lassen Medical Group is a primary care office in Red Bluff, CA located at 2450 Sister Mary Columba Dr., . They are open 5 days a week seeing walk-in patients in Red Bluff and offer extended hours. Lassen Medical Group appears to be individually owned and operated and not part of a larger network of primary care clinics. There are, however, 1 walk-in clinics within 20 miles of Red Bluff in cities including Cottonwood.
Primary care offices like Lassen Medical Group are most commonly staffed by family or internal medicine physicians with a clinical support team designed to be a patients medical home. All patients should have a primary care physician to treat routine medical concerns and manage chronic conditions. In the event your primary care physician is not open or if you are unable to obtain an appointment, the following are the closest urgent care centers to this clinic:
- Lassen Medical Group (17.1 mi)
If you are suffering from a true medical emergency, go to the emergency room in Red Bluff, CA or call 911 immediately.
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320 Asbury Avenue
Evanston, Illinois 60202
Michael R. Hogg847.763.0200
Listing information updated today (03/21/2018)
Located 12 miles north of Chicago in Cook County, Evanston offers a beautiful natural setting on Lake Michigan complete with expansive parks, historic architecture and the world-renowned Northwestern University campus. With bustling business districts, arts and culture, and easy access…Learn More
School Assignment Data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics
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CTA Rail
at South Blvd. (0.65 miles away), Howard
Union Pacific North
at Main St Metra (0.87 miles away)


text:
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 2011, Asian Pacific American Law School Students Association; East Asia Law Review, Associate Editor
B.B.A., Corporate Finance and Business Honors Program, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
Texas, 2011
Chinese (Mandarin)
Simin Sun is an associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets and Securities, and Energy Practice Groups in the Houston office of Haynes and Boone.
His practice is primarily focused on corporate securities, mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, corporate governance, cross border transactions, and other corporate matters. He assists clients in various corporate matters including equity financings for privately and publicly held companies, reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, stock and asset acquisitions, compliance with corporate governance regulations, public and private securities offerings, and other securities transactions.
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I no longer feel that I may be getting too involved with this game? lol
Man, you put alot in to this and for that I thank you. All i know is i get higher up, I get faster, more accurate, and favor certain weapons for many different reasons, mostly situation dependant.
I do like what you did, good Job.
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uSinn ViciousuBounty Hunter / Eclipse
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If this isn't a good sign that the game is boring....
Hehe, thanks excellent read. Now I'm going back to print it out!
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Specializing in Bounty Hunting. | Specializing in Carbineer. | Specializing in Creature Handling.
Specializing in Rifleman. | Specializing in Architecture | Soon to be Specializing in Teras Kasi Artist.
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Atrislo wrote:Great post! I was always so excited when I would get a speed slice, now I will be disappointed! I hit the cap long ago, lol.
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If I use a targeted pool atack, like Torso shot or eye shot....Does 20% of my damage still go to other pools? Or is that only for auto fire?
Taewyn Alsan Lt Colonel in service of the Empire
Taewyn and Oqua's "As you like it" Armor and Clothing store. On Naboo, right outside of Kaadara Location: +5729 +6376.
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NM ran a test, yes targeted pool atacks also have 20% of thier damage go to other pools...
Hit a Dalrayke for 620 with torso shot, hit Action+mind went down 62, and his health went down 490 something
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(Base Weapon Speed) * [1 - (Weapon Speed Skill/100)]
Also to add to this very nice post, Id like to remind everyone.
Specials have a speed mod on them.
(weapons speed*special delay mod)-(weapons speed*special delay mod)*Weapons skill speed/100
So when figuring your speed with a special, you have to find out first what delay the special has on it.
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Sorry for yet another post, but wanted to give an example of how it works....
Lets take an LLC 4.0 Speed.....
Lightning single 2 which has a delay mod of 2.0 (tested it)
And somebody with LLC 4 +60 speed
Speed equation done in steps.
Hope that helps a little, again fantasic post


text:
NoE: 'In shops and on Nintendo eShop now: Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush'
Kirby's first Wii U adventure is now available in Europe.
NintendObserver's select content on Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush for Wii U.
Kirby's first Wii U adventure is now available in Europe.
Rejoignez Kirby dans une aventure haute en couleur.
"Kirby Kirby Kirby notre super-héros !!"
Building up the launch of the Rainbow Paintbrush on the eShop.
Kirby au plus mignon de sa forme.
Kirby et le pinceau arc-en-ciel sort en Europe le 8 mai sur Wii U.
"Even the cover art of the package is a photo of actual clay!"
This has got to be the definition of cuteness.
Kirby amiibo says "Hi!"
This program is provided to you by kirbykirbykirby.com. 😛
The new Kirby's official press release as Kirby and the Rainbow Curse launches tomorrow in North America.
Kirby comes to America on Wii U in less than two weeks.
Dream Land needs U to retrieve its colors. February 20.
Showcasing the Kirby, Meta Knight and King Dedede amiibo in the upcoming new Kirby game.
"Reinbou." (Rainbow.) Reinbou everywhere.
"Uzumaki Reinbou…" Touch! Kirby: Super Rainbow out in Japan on January 22, 2015.
Nintendo making it cute with the new Kirby game on Wii U.


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December 2009
Geneva students visit the land of the Bible
Beginning December 28, a group of Geneva students will spend 12 days of their Christmas break exploring the land where Jesus walked and lived. The trip, offered once every two years, is the culmination of a class called Archaeology and Geography of Israel. The trip will be led by Bible professors Dr. Scott Shidemantle, Dr. Jonathan Watt and Dr. Byron Curtis.
"This semester we have been meeting on Monday evenings, learning about the geography of Israel, learning about the art and science of archaeology, and reviewing many of the specific historical sites that we will visit in Israel," Shidemantle says.
For Shidemantle, this trip is a way for students to see, touch and experience what they have learned in the classroom. "For people like me, who love the Bible and who learn best by doing and experiencing, this course and trip will be a blessing!" he says.
Students who have already taken the class agree. "Just seeing the sights that you hear about in the Bible adds a lot of foundation to your faith," says Robert Strength, senior history major.
When the 28 students arrive in Israel, they will stay in Tiberius, a city in Northern Israel on the Sea of Galilee. While there, they will take day trips to places like Dan, Capernaum, and Nazareth.
After a few days they will relocate to a hotel in Jerusalem and take day trips to Jericho, the Dead Sea, Qumran, Masada, Bethlehem, Herodium, Lachish and other major religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. The students will also visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, the Western Wall, Hezekiah′s Tunnel and the Temple Mount.
"My favorite part would probably be the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Seeing and being able to touch the rock that Christ was crucified on and seeing the tomb that He was buried in was a very humbling experience," Strength says.
Students will also have the opportunity to work and learn at an archaeological sifting operation in Jerusalem. But they won′t be focusing entirely on the past. Throughout the trip, professors encourage students to learn about the culture of Israel today.
"They will have lots of opportunities to interact with Muslims, Jews and Middle Eastern Christians of a variety of denominations. The cultural exchange will be quite amazing," he says.
The next trip will be held over the 2011-12 winter break. Interested alumni and friends can e-mail Dr. Scott Shidemantle at email@example.com for information and updates.
Click here to view photos from the 2007 Israel trip.
By Rocco Palmerine ′10 and Katie Brown ′11


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Tennis News
Tennis Teams Finish Season Just Outside Top 25
Posted May 24, 2017
Men's Coaches' Poll-Click Here Women's Coaches' Poll-Click Here The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams both finished the 2017 season ranked just outside their respective top 25 coaches' polls. The Viking women's tennis team was featured in the "others receiving votes" category of the NAIA Women's Tennis Coaches Postseason Top 25 Poll... Read More
Lilian Blasque Named Tennis All-American
Posted May 23, 2017
All-American List-Click Here Marshall, Mo. (May 23, 2017)- Missouri Valley College women's tennis student-athlete, Senior Lilian Blasque (Andradina, Brazil) has been named to the 2017 NAIA Women's Tennis All-America Team. Blasque was chosen as an honorable mention All-American for her play during the season... Read More
Lilian Blasque Earns Regional ITA Award
Posted May 17, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (May 17, 2017)- Missouri Valley College women's tennis student-athlete, Senior Lilian Blasque (Andradina, Brazil) has earned a regional award from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for her play during the 2017 season. Blasque has been named the ITA Central Region Senior Player of the Year after leading the women's tennis team to an 11-6 record on the season... Read More
Lilian Blasque Leads Tennis All-Conference Awards as Player of the Year
Posted May 2, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (May 2, 2017)- The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams were recognized with all-conference selections following the 2017 season. The Viking women's team put four individuals and two doubles teams on the all-conference list, led by Senior Lilian Blasque (Andradina, Brazil), who was named the conference's Player of the Year for the second time in her career... Read More
Tennis Teams Fall to William Woods in Tournament Finals
Posted April 29, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (April 29, 2017)- The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams competed in their conference tournaments, both advancing to the tournament finals. The women's team lost to No. 11 William Woods (Mo.) University in the championship round, 5-1 in matches, while the men's team fell to No... Read More
Postponed/Canceled Events
Posted April 29, 2017
The Missouri Valley College softball doubleheader at Avila (Mo.) University scheduled for today (Saturday) at 1pm has been cancelled. The doubleheader will not be rescheduled. The Missouri Valley College women's tennis matches against William Woods (Mo.) University for today (Saturday) have been moved to the Genesis Raquet Club South in Lawrence, Kan... Read More
Viking Tennis Teams Defeat Bethany College on the Road
Posted April 24, 2017
The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams traveled to Winfield, KS, to play against Bethany (Kan.) College, Sunday afternoon. The men's team won 5-4, with Freshman Benedikt Voelker (Neubeuem, Germany) sealing the win for the Vikings. The women's team also won... Read More
Missouri Valley Tennis Teams Split at Southwestern College
Posted April 23, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (April 22, 2017)- The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams traveled to Winfield, KS to play against Southwestern College on Saturday. The men's team won 9-0 while the women's team lost 6-3. Men's Doubles: Junior Stefano Benedetti (Toronto, Canada)/Junior Abdul Alhamzawi (Pompano Beach, Fla... Read More
Viking Tennis Teams Fall to William Woods
Posted April 18, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (April 18, 2017)- The Missouri Valley College men's and women's tennis teams hosted ranked William Woods (Mo.) University teams Tuesday at Indian Foothills Park. The men's team lost to No. 8 William Woods, 9-0, while the women's team fell to the No. 7 Owls, 7-2... Read More
Four Vikings Earn Weekly Heart Honors
Posted April 10, 2017
Marshall, Mo. (April 10, 2017)- Four Missouri Valley College student-athletes were chosen for weekly awards by the Heart of America Athletic Conference in their respective sports, sweeping the tennis and golf awards. Junior Abdul Alhamzawi (Pompano Beach, Fla.) was named the Heart Men's Tennis Player of the Week, and Senior Lilian Blasque (Andradina, Brazil) earned the Heart Women's Tennis Player of the Week award... Read More


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Want to see an example of Dr. Riffel's humor and ability to teach about behavior? Watch this short video
How to keep the momentum going in your PBIS school-wide program
This presentation is applicable for any school who has implemented the universal level of School-wide PBIS.
- A presentation time of 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. works best.
- A link will be sent for the booklet required for this training. You will need to print a booklet for each participant
- Dr. Riffel will link the PowerPoint presentation the day of the training for participants.
- Classroom style setting for participants (they will be writing and participating in group discussions.)
- If more than 50 participants, Dr. Riffel will need a lavaliere (lapel) microphone and the ability to link to a sound system for video clips that illustrate specific points. (Dr. Riffel cannot hold a microphone for an extended period of time or stand in one place as she demonstrates with actual materials and through audience interaction.)
- An extra table up front is required for demonstration materials.
- It's easy to be excited about PBIS when schools first get started; however, within a few months it is easy for the excitement to dwindle. This presentation will focus on ways to motivate:
- Staff
- Students
- Parents
- Community members
- The focus of this presentation is on free rewards for the school- PBIS can be implemented on a shoestring budget.
- This presentation will show pictures from real schools across the world.
- Staff will be motivated to give out more gotchas because of the motivation piece built into this presentation.
- The PBIS green team will focus on catching adults being good.
- The Community will be excited to be involved in supporting your PBIS efforts.
- The Parents will be excited to be involved in supporting your PBIS efforts.
- This presentation will share ideas for group contingencies and group rewards.
- This presentation will share ideas for group vs. group contingencies and group vs. group rewards.
- This presentation will share ideas for individual contingencies and individual rewards.


text:
Good afternoon.
Every year, over the past decade, when we have gathered in April, we have noted that the times appear to be unusually turbulent. From the events of 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, the tragedies in Darfur, the tsunamis and volcanoes, the earthquakes and massive forest fires, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the domestic political excitations on both the federal and state fronts, one or another economic crisis and the current collapse of the national housing market, changes in federal policy that affect higher education, the external waters through which we have steered our academic community have indeed been turbulent. As we gather this April, in the hopeful season of spring, once again, we face rough waters and uncertain times.
For those of you who are relatively new to the University, you cannot possibly have a full realization of the effort that it has taken to realize the accomplishments we have over the last decade in the face of great odds and with very little support from the mother ship of the state. For those of you who have been here during those years, I know how great your efforts have been, how stressed and tired you must feel. But to the long-termers, it has to be some real satisfaction to you to see the concrete manifestations of your accomplishments.
I was talking to some students a few weeks ago, and, with their limited temporal perspective – after all, they come, stay a few years and leave, as they should – they asked me, when are you going to do something about providing more parking and more housing and more full-time faculty and more of the things students need. I answered, would it surprise you to know that just a few years ago there was no Village at Little Falls with 1,000 beds, there was no Red Hawk Deck or Transit Deck. There was no Kasser Theater, no Recreation Center, no University Hall, no Cali School of Music, no renovated Panzer Athletic Center, no renovated Chemistry labs, no spiffy new space for Communications Sciences and Disorders, no Café Diem, no Red Hawk Diner, no renovations to the Clove Road Apartments which were so deteriorated we thought the only option would be to tear them down.
There was no library and computing facility open 24/7. There was very little at all in the way of IT infrastructure and computer labs for students. There were no plans for a new science facility, for a new School of Business, for a new center for foreign languages and linguistics. There was no 300-bed Frank Sinatra Hall or new 1500 car parking deck getting ready to open for September. There were more than 100 fewer full-time members of the faculty. There were no doctoral programs, and no undergraduate programs in about twenty major fields of study that are currently attracting large numbers of students. There was significantly less money available for scholarships, student engagement in research, and many fewer services for students. And, by the way, many of the students here today probably wouldn't have been here, because our enrollments were much smaller a few years ago. Well, it did surprise them to know that, but, for those of us who have lived through the decade here, it does not surprise us. You have a right to be tired.
So, we come to this day tired, but ranked by Forbes Magazine as the top public university in New Jersey, based on the value students derive from their investment in a Montclair State education. Our arts programs have taken the lead in the region and are attracting students from a national talent pool. Our education programs have been ranked as among the ten best in the nation, and, just this week, US News and World Report Rankings of Graduate Schools ranked our secondary teacher education program as the 14th in the nation, ahead of Harvard, NYU, UCLA, Berkeley, Texas, and Maryland and our elementary teacher education program as 17th in the nation, extraordinary numbers especially given the fact that all the other top 20 institutions are research universities.
Our science and math faculty are beginning to make serious headway in getting federal acknowledgement of the quality of their research and educational programs. Our business programs are holding their own against enormous competition and are continuing to develop program areas of recognized excellence. In the humanities and social sciences, the heart of the liberal arts core of the Montclair State education, highly valued by students, we have recruited strong new faculty and the effort at revitalizing and strengthening programs and exploiting the opportunities of interdisciplinarity have begun in earnest.
But we are tired. We do recognize that we are fortunate compared with many other sectors of society in regard to the security of our employment and the quality of our work environment, but we are disaffected by a continuing environment of under-investment by the state and lack of recognition of the importance of what we do. We are grim about furloughs; we are yearning for salary increases; we are worried about larger classes, about staff positions remaining unfilled, about new equipment and repairs postponed and maintenance that is deferred. So what do we do?
In regard to the anxieties about ourselves and employment and compensation issues, let me see if I can clarify a few issues. There are no hard decisions to be made about anything related to these matters until the State budget is adopted on June 30. In recent years, budget language has intruded upon compensation matters in an unprecedented way, and it is possible that it will do so again, but we cannot be sure. So, there is little we can do or say now except the following. First, no matter what happens with the budget, there will be no layoffs at Montclair State University. Second, no matter what happens with the budget, there will be no furloughs at Montclair State University unless furloughs are absolutely required by law, and I am almost certain that there will not be any such requirement. Third, unless the Governor renegotiates labor agreements or takes some other action affecting the labor agreements, the salary increases for the 2010-2011 academic year called for in the current labor agreements for unionized employees will be paid. Fourth, a decision about any salary increases for non-unionized employees has not and will not be made until the State budget is adopted by June 30.
That is all I can tell you now, other than to say that I will continue to do my best to protect University employees and to assure that we make equitable and reasonable decisions in regard to all of our employees. There are several units in the University that have been negatively impacted by various State actions, particularly in regard to salary compression, and Vice President Hain will be analyzing that and other issues so that we are ready to make the best and the fairest decisions we can at the appropriate time.
Meanwhile, during this short period between now and June 30, advocacy on behalf of public higher education is extremely important for two reasons. First, such advocacy may succeed in effecting some increase to funding in the FY 2011 budget; and, second, such advocacy sends a message to Trenton that there is a voting constituency that cares about public higher education.
Between now and June 30, the most critical target for that advocacy is the legislature – your individual senators and assembly representatives and the legislative leadership, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Speaker of the Assembly Sheila Oliver. Our Director of Government Relations, Shivaun Gaines, will keep you informed about any organized initiatives, but unique and individual letters or e-mails from your home addresses to legislators about the critical importance to the state of public higher education are the most effective advocacy tool. So write letters, and get everyone you know who shares your views to write as well.
The most telling point about the proposed FY 2011 budget for the senior public institutions, including Montclair State, is that it provides for an appropriation for operating support that is approximately what it was 15 years ago, when we had many fewer faculty, students, facilities and services. If we just look at what has happened over the last decade, in the 2000-2001 academic year, the state provided $4,800 in operating support per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. That was not a high number back then; it was quite modest support.
In the proposed budget for the 2010-2011 academic year, operating support per FTE student drops to about $2,600. That is not modest support, and especially when the effects of inflation are considered, it is so low as to be not justifiable or reasonable by any standard. The actual dollar cut amounts to $6.8 million and the cost of the largest expenditure increase, which is for negotiated salary raises, is $6.4 million, making the size of the budgetary problem in rough terms about $13.2 million.
As in the past, State cuts to higher education will not deter Montclair State from moving forward on its long-term strategic goals. From FY2000 through FY2010, the University's operating budget more than doubled, growing from $133 million to $309 million. This increase reflected enrollment growth, increased full-time faculty positions, and enhancements to information technology, facilities, academic support, and student housing. The expansion we have experienced is based on sound operating practices, and our budget is always balanced. Next year, we will again bring on new faculty, complete many critical facility improvement projects, and fund State-mandated salary increases.
To compensate for reduced State appropriation, we will continue to focus on using available resources as wisely and efficiently as possible and on generating additional revenue from non-State sources wherever feasible. To the greatest extent possible, we will observe the following principles:
- Budgets will be developed from a long-term perspective and will protect core academic programs.
- We will continue to recruit highly qualified faculty in response to enrollment growth.
- We will protect the workforce of the University, which is responsible for our extraordinary achievements of the last decade.
- We will provide the facilities and equipment necessary for high-quality academic programs.
To observe these principles, we will have to exercise discipline in a number of areas. We must:
- exercise rigorous review before filling any vacant position or creating any new position;
- apply the highest standards to every hire we make;
- use every instructional, administrative, and student service resource as efficiently as possible;
- continue to improve both academic and business practices, seeking out additional efficiencies that will also yield greater quality;
- challenge ourselves to find mission-appropriate activities that generate additional revenue; and
- eliminate programs and activities that, while beneficial, constitute areas for which there is less demand, or where we cannot achieve high quality, or that are lower institutional priorities.
I have asked department chairs, deans, directors, and vice presidents to exercise very thorough and careful budget discipline in regard to everything from course offerings, class sizes and scheduling to expenditures for any non-essential activities or materials. The FY2011 budget process has begun and will continue over the next two months with the participation of all of the University's many units. Please feel free to bring any ideas and questions you might have to your division and department heads.
Beyond the compensation and budgetary issues, there are a number of very critical issues facing the University to which we must give our serious attention in ways that are appropriate to our various different and individual responsibilities. Two of those issues relate to critically needed infrastructure. First, the University is very close to resolution on the massive Capstone project. This project, if successfully consummated, will provide two thousand beds for student residential opportunities and associated dining facilities in a complex of buildings on the north campus parking lots. This project would be the first one undertaken under the provisions of the NJ Economic Stimulus Act which provides for public/private partnerships for the construction of revenue-generating facilities, such as housing. The goal is to have the housing available by the fall of 2011, and the importance of the project to the University cannot be over-stated.
As State support for public higher education in New Jersey has declined precipitously, we have become increasingly dependent on tuition revenue. Tuition revenue, in turn, depends on a large and robust pool of applicants. We have enjoyed a strong and growing applicant pool from all of the counties in New Jersey, but, to insure the future stability and fiscal health of the University, we will need to broaden our applicant pool from the furthest away counties and from out of state. In order to do that, we must be able to house students.
At present, only 5% of our students come from out of state, and it would be highly desirable for any number of reasons to raise that percentage. It is also the case that we frequently lose some of our most qualified applicants because we cannot guarantee them housing. Such students will choose higher cost institutions in nearby states that can make that housing guarantee. Additionally, national data show indisputably that students who live on campus have higher rates of persistence to graduation and more timely graduation rates. Higher and faster graduation rates provide substantial economic benefits to both students and to the University. So there are very strong academic and economic reasons for the fast and substantial expansion of the University's student housing capacity.
The Capstone project is very complex, involving a highly complicated fabric of business negotiations, construction logistics, and governmental approvals. It is currently absorbing an enormous amount of effort, literally day and night effort, by a number of administrative offices as we race against the clock for the possibility of housing to be available for the 2011-2012 academic year.
In the shorter term, we are pleased that construction on Frank Sinatra Hall, a fifth residential building in the Village of Little Falls complex, will be completed this summer, providing about 300 additional beds for the coming fall term. For those of you who may have missed it, though I cannot see how you could have, since it is a colossus, a tasteful colossus, but a colossus nonetheless, construction of the new parking garage in the middle of campus will be complete by June and fully ready for the fall term rush. The new garage will provide parking for 1,500 cars. Following up on the playful mangling of the University's motto, Carpe Diem, that we began with the naming of our cyber-café as Café Diem, the new parking garage will be called – yes – you've got it, CarParc Diem.
I said that there were two major infrastructure initiatives underway. After housing, the second of these is the Bell Tower Project. The Bell Tower Initiative is an expansive project to replace the University's legacy business systems with a web-based, self-service system that provides more automated processes, robust reporting capabilities, and user-friendly portal technology.
Among the many benefits of the new system will be real-time access to financial data; Web-based applications for procurement of goods and services; capacity to move to paperless processes in a wide range of administrative functions; intuitive screens for inputting information; and, a one-stop access point for students, allowing access to courses, accounts, and grades.
For many months now, teams from across the University, engaging literally hundreds of people, have been working on the implementation of the system, reviewing processes and workflows, and playing a critical role in shaping and transforming the University's business and administrative models. I want to express my appreciation to these individuals, who are managing a challenging assignment while, in many cases, continuing to carry on with their normal responsibilities.
The Bell Tower implementation will be a phased process, beginning this summer and extending forward through 2011. Along with water, steam, and electricity, information technology has become the additional utility that is absolutely indispensable to everything we do, and the Bell Tower Project will assure that the University has the capacity it needs in this critical area for decades to come.
As we look to the future, it is really time again for the University to reconsider two major questions: What kind of university do we want Montclair State to be, and what do we need to do to insure that our students succeed?
The first question will have to be answered by our next strategic plan, which continues to be a document that is under construction. As my earlier comments about the budget suggest, the big questions about the University will need to be answered within the context of an institution that can no longer rely on governmental support for the lion's share of its operations. That means that the programs we offer and the way we offer them are compelled, to an increasing degree, to be market driven.
Students need to understand why they should be taking on debt and investing their education dollars in a Montclair State University education, and, in order for them to understand why, we need to know why and to be able to communicate the answer effectively. In many instances, our programs are very well constructed and well aligned with today's educational needs, but not in all cases, and how our programs are shaped academically is an issue of the very highest importance. While the first, most important characteristic that defines the University is absolutely the quality and the commitment of our faculty, the scope and nature of our academic programs certainly comes second on the list. Rigorous assessment and reassessment of our programs is a task that is never done because new knowledge is always being created and societal needs are always changing.
As I skimmed through the various departmental and college strategic plans, a number of interesting themes appeared to emerge:
1. We appear to be recognizing that our programs must become increasingly interdisciplinary. Certainly, as I look at the attributes of our faculty from a central point of view, it is clear to me that we have a significant number of instances where faculty in different departments and different colleges have very significant strengths that could be combined to generate very creative centers of academic excellence in the University.
Just to provide one example, in the cognitive sciences and linguistics we have at least three discipline areas which could constitute a multi-disciplinary nexus of excellence. The new state-of-the-art Center for Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology has ten research laboratories and includes two sound suites for diagnostic audiology testing where faculty, including Professors Janet Koehnke, Joan Besing, and Mary Boyle, conduct research in psychoacoustics, electrophysiology and audiodiagnosis, as well as all aspects of aphasia.
The Linguistics faculty, including Professors Eileen Fitzpatrick and Mary Call, are doing funded investigations into the cognitive processes by which we understand sentences and how deception works in language. Psychology has eight functioning research laboratories, at least five of which are focused on some aspect of cognitive processing such as Prof. Yoav Arieh's work on the integration of visual and auditory stimuli, Prof. Debra Zellner's work on multimodal perception and the relationship between colors and perception of odors, and Prof. Julian Keenan's work on neuroimaging and the correlates of self-awareness and self-deception.
Other obvious areas where we have the potential to magnify our impact by bringing together our cross-disciplinary strengths are in the field of environmental management and in the various disciplines that explore research, social policy and advocacy related to the child in society. Combining the creative strengths resident across disciplines and colleges would enhance our ability to focus resources and visibility around a small number of distinctive broad areas where we can build the University's reputation which would be of enormous help in attracting the financial support and applicants that will drive excellence in all of our programs.
2. In many of our programs, the departmental plans are seeking a more rigorous approach to assuring the professionalism of the program and the capacity of the program to produce graduates who are recognized as being extremely well-prepared for employment in the relevant fields. In order to have that kind of confidence in the preparation we provide to students, departments recognize that they must maintain active and ongoing relationships with the employing entities, whether it is preparation for the accounting profession, the broadcast industry, the schools, business, or clinical professions.
3. That concern leads to a third general area which is the need perceived by a number of programs, schools and colleges to build much deeper and more extensive industry connections. Such connections are recognized as required to assure adequate and current preparation of students, extensive and meaningful opportunities for internships and post-graduation employment opportunities, close alignment of program parameters to industry priorities, providing real world classroom experiences for students, sharing of resources in ways that are mutually beneficial to our programs and students and the industry, and garnering external, industry-based financial support for our programs.
Perhaps the best example in the University of the power of such connections is the extensive fabric of relationships that have been forged between our teacher preparation programs and school districts throughout the state and, through those relationships, with the foundations and governmental agencies that fund educational initiatives. Those relationships have contributed to the recognition of our teacher preparation program as among the best in the country, have made our graduates sought after for employment, have assured the quality of preparation provided to students, and have yielded very significant financial support for the work of the College of Education and Human Services.
4. Not unrelated to the issue of professionalism mentioned earlier is the companion question of real knowledge acquisition, that is, competency as opposed to seat time. Is it our goal to assure that our graduates can actually speak and read a foreign language, or is it satisfactory that they take two courses and learn enough about the foreign language to realize that they cannot speak or read it? How much math do students in various fields of study really need to know? How serious are we about a student's ability to do original analysis, to use research resources effectively, to write or to speak with clarity and cogency in public settings? The answers to these questions should have a very real impact on the decisions we make about degree requirements and on the educational methodologies we make available to our students – for example, on the mix between organized class instruction and self-paced and self-directed tools for learning.
5. Given the realization of the global village, most programs see the desirability for the effective internationalization of their programs. Such initiatives may begin with faculty visits to institutions abroad, and Montclair State has been particularly generous in sponsoring such opportunities, but it certainly cannot end there. We should be making more rapid progress in exploring the potential of joint programs with foreign partner universities. Our own courses, curricula, and degree programs should be effectively infused with an international perspective if students, such as most of ours, who have grown up in a fairly parochial environment, are going to have the knowledge base and understanding to be effective leaders in a world that will, of necessity, take them well beyond the boundaries of the State of New Jersey.
6. Every program is engaged in the exploration of appropriate and distinctive uses of technology to improve, expand and intensify the content of their programs and the intensity of the learning experience for students. There is so much to say in this category in regard to what we teach, how we teach, and how students learn that I will, in fact, say nothing more here than to note that this is not an area where we are in the lead among our peers.
We have a good deal to do before we get to the level of achievement at which we should be, given the size and comprehensive nature of our institution. So, we can perhaps regard this area as one where the opportunities are pretty much all ahead of us. We have begun to make a good start on the road, so there is no question in my mind that we have the capacity for realizing the rich and creative and economically beneficial potential of the instructional uses of technology.
7. Most of our programs and departments also share the desire for achieving the enhanced visibility, competitiveness, and reputation of their programs. This goal is a laudable and, frankly, a very necessary one. In the absence of adequate state support, if we are to continue to attract strong students and external support for our work, then we must demonstrate that we do what we do at a recognized and high degree of quality. It stands to reason that all of the University's programs cannot be recognized as among the best in the region or the nation, and they can certainly be very good and very strong contributors to the overall education that our students receive without being so recognized. However, we must have some that are clearly recognized as among the best in the region or the nation, and such programs will lend their glow to everything else that we do.
Every successful institution benefits from that strategy, and there is no reason why we should not or cannot. We already have a program in Education that is nationally recognized as among the best. We are getting rapidly to the place where several of our programs in the Arts are beginning to be recognized as among the best in the region. We also have the benefit of an array of good, solid programs from A to Z with very little among them to embarrass us, and that certainly cannot be said of many institutions.
While every program cannot rise to national recognition, every college should have one or more program fields of real and recognized distinction. That will take prioritizing and focusing resources, and it will also require making rigorous decisions, not only about what we will build programmatically, but also about what we will not build and what we may cease to do because we do not do it well or simply because we have not been able to attract students to the program.
8. Finally, the last thread I want to pull out from my reading of the planning documents is a mission and value proposition. At the heart of Montclair State University, throughout its century-long history, has been the commitment to be a democratizing force in society. The education of students without regard to their race or gender and without regard to their economic status, the provision of opportunity to those who have the aspiration and capacity to benefit from the education we offer even though they may not have had the chances and benefits of others, the attention we pay in our programs to the needs of marginalized populations – all these principles have been and clearly continue to be part of how you are thinking about what kind of University this should be.
These eight areas are certainly not the only themes present in all of the strategic plans, but they are the themes that seemed to rise to the top in my initial read of the documents. There is no question that they present a hefty work agenda for us. If we are to turn these principles into a truly viable strategic plan, we will need to get very specific about how we intend to accomplish our objectives and how we intend to measure our success. Provost Gingerich is leading the effort toward the completion of our plan, but all of you will be asked to review the result carefully before it is finalized.
Finally, I would like to turn my attention to our students. We continue to execute our strategic enrollment management plan, implementing retention initiatives to support student persistence and graduation. We are working diligently to help our students succeed by enhancing our advisement approaches, providing innovative supplemental instructional programs, and increasing early intervention for first-year students and other student populations who can benefit from additional support.
These measures are bearing fruit. The six-year graduation rate for entering first-time, full-time freshmen continues its steady improvement and has reached about 62%. That figure far exceeds the national average of about 46% for institutions in our Carnegie classification. Our one-year retention rate for entering first-time, full-time freshmen also rose for the third consecutive year, with 83% of the fall 2008 cohort returning in fall 2009. Contributing to our retention efforts, we are experiencing significantly greater success in moving students who are on probation back into good academic standing. In the fall of 2005, 222 students were placed on probation and 129, or 58% of them, succeeded in returning to good academic standing. In the fall of 2009, the same number, 222 students were placed on probation, but 161, or 73% of them, succeeded in moving back into good standing.
We are also looking very closely at our admissions criteria. There is now very persuasive data that demonstrate that high school grade point average is the most powerful predictor of successful persistence to graduation in college. Race, gender, socio-economic status, SAT scores, or even the quality of the high school all play very little part in predicting who will actually succeed in college. However, if a student has worked their way to the top of their high school class, whether they are rich or poor, whether that high school is a good school or a poor school, notwithstanding any other factor, they are very likely to succeed in college. These findings suggest the advisability of certain adjustments to our admissions policies, and those are being studied carefully now.
Once students are here, it is critical that we do everything possible to assure their successful and timely graduation, and that begins by creating an environment in which the expectation that full time students will graduate in four years is part of the institutional culture. In order for that to happen, advisors throughout the students' career, both pre-major and major advisors, from day one and every day thereafter, must stress that objective and assist students in planning their programs so that they can in fact graduate in four years.
A requirement precedent to success is that each program and department rigorously reviews their course offerings and assures that they have good advising information on the Web and a well-constructed and well-communicated schedule of courses that will enable students to follow a coherent plan to graduation. Anything less than that is simply not acceptable. The cost to students and to the institution of extended periods of time to graduation is very substantial. We are making progress toward this goal and have been recognized as a national leader in this area, including most recently by the Education Trust for our success in closing the minority achievement gap. However, in a number of our undergraduate programs and in our graduate programs, we still have a way to go in assuring timely completion of degrees.
There is also considerable data that students from low socio-economic backgrounds are strongly affected by educational cost. For that reason, continued significant growth in the funds we have available for scholarships for needy students must be an institutional priority. In that regard, I call to your attention that this year's Annual Scholarship Dinner will be held next week on Thursday, April 29th in University Hall. The dinner, to which you may still buy a ticket if you have not already done so, is being sponsored by Prudential this year, and, as always, the proceeds of the gala will go toward student scholarships and a number of students will be recognized with University awards. Perhaps you will recognize some of them:
Those faces and voices express more clearly than can I the importance of our finding with courage and with clarity the right answer to the question of what kind of university we want Montclair State to be. However we frame the answer, the one thing of which I can be certain is that it will not become a reality without our prodigious efforts. We have brought this institution to where we are today, and I am confident that we have the moxie to take it to where it next needs to go.
For all that you have done and for all that you will do, for the integrity and caring and commitment you bring to your work, I thank all of you. I thank you on behalf of the State we continue to serve though it may not serve us, on behalf of the profession to which you are all a credit, on behalf of society that will be the beneficiary of the knowledge you create, and on behalf of our students for whom you are the lifeline to the future.
Please join your colleagues at Commencement and the college Convocations for the annual ceremonies of success!