The IPFW campus was honored by the congregation of St Augustine Lutheran Church and its pastor, the Rev. John Loum, this semester in recognition of IPFW’s contributions to African education. The honors were accepted by IPFW Chancellor Michael Wartell and Connell Nelson, director of international services. IPFW recorded its first African student in 1983; the student, who was from Ethiopia, was not identified in the records. International enrollment figures are updated each fall, and in 2004, 70 students from African nations were enrolled in classes.

Jeff Nowak, School of Education, and James Dettmer, a science teacher at Perry Hill Elementary School in the Northwest Allen County School System, have received an $8,000 Excellence in Education grant from ITT Industries and the Allen County Education Partnership to fund a “Destination Mars” project that involves Dettmer’s fourth grade and Nowak’s college students. The fourth graders will be building robots out of Lego blocks.

Geralyn Miller, SPEA, published two articles in the Feb. 1 issue of Policy Studies Journal. Her feature article was titled “Methodology, Statistics and Voting Error: An Exploration of 2000 Presidential Election Data in Two States.” The other was a rejoinder to a rebuttal published in the same journal regarding her article. The rejoinder was entitled “The Benefits of Scholarly Discourse: A Response to ‘Studying Elections: Data Quality and Pitfalls in Measuring of Effects of Voting Technologies Across States.’”

Mary Ann Cain, English and linguistics, has used an Indiana Campus Compact Scholarship of Engagement mini-grant to run a service learning course for master’s degree students called Creativity and Community. Cain’s winter semester class linked master’s degree students with the Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble, a local West African drumming and dance group for children. The students have been studying how language is used to help create community as well as assisting in the teaching of classes organized by the group in writing, drumming, peace studies, yoga and dance. The grant was funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

IPFW played host this month to more than 100 math professors and students from colleges and universities across the Hoosier state taking part in the spring meeting of the Indiana Section of the Math Association of America. The semi-annual meeting, held April 1-2, allowed professors and students the opportunity to attend workshops and seminars, and to take part in the Indiana College Mathematics Competition.