Appointments
Penn State Intercom......August
30, 2001
Director appointed assistant
dean of multicultural affairs
Joseph Selden has been named assistant dean for multicultural affairs for the College of Communications.
He has served as director of multicultural affairs for the college since 1994.
During Selden's tenure, enrollment of students of color within the college has risen by an average of 11.8 percent during each of the past seven years.
Along with recruiting and retaining students, the college has attracted students of quality. The 21 Bunton-Waller Scholars within the college have a 3.57 grade-point average, above the campus average of 3.2, and two of the four students the college recognized as student marshals during the spring 2001 semester were diversity scholars.
Selden provides academic advising, coordinates the peer-mentoring program, oversees the academic intervention program, advises student clubs and organizes cultural heritage programs. He also assumes primary responsibility for raising funds for the annual multicultural high-school journalism workshop and coordinates the Knight Diversity Scholars Program.
During his tenure at the University, Selden has served as president of the Council of College Minority Affairs Directors, was selected as a special committee member for the Vice Provost's Orientation Planning Committee and was appointed a board member by New York City's chapter of the National Association of Minorities in Communications. He was honored as Distinguished Member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars in 2000.
Before his arrival at the University in 1994, Selden was assistant director of student services/registrar at Cornell University. He earned his master's degree from Syracuse University in 1976 and his bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University in 1973. After 27 years of service, he retired this year from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.
Director of Information,
Communication Technology named 
Neal Vines, director of Agriculture Information Systems at Purdue University, has been named director of Information and Communication Technologies in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Vines will lead the Information and Communication Technologies unit, which was formed in 2000 by the merger of Ag Information Services and Computer Services. ICT's services include video production and conferencing, publishing, news and media relations, information technology, Web development, computer training and support, and exhibit design.
Vines will provide leadership for information technology and communication initiatives; incorporate technology objectives into the college's strategic plans; and implement strategies for identifying and reaching the college's key audiences.
Vines earned his bachelor's degree in animal science from Virginia Tech in 1980, then joined that university as an agricultural extension agent. From 1981 to 1988 he was a farm management agent, and in 1988 he was named a computer resource agent.
In 1995, after earning his master's degree in information systems from Virginia Tech, he was named coordinator of the university's Extension Information Systems. He directed the implementation of Virginia Cooperative Extension's first statewide data and telecommunications network, a $1.5 million project that included negotiating with telecommunications companies and establishing procedures and guidelines for network installation.
In 1998, Vines joined Purdue University as director of Agriculture Information Systems.
Assistant professor named
to head undergraduate program
G. Steven McMillian, assistant professor of management at Penn State Abington, has been named coordinator of Abington College Undergraduate Research Activities.
The program encourages all of its undergraduate students to go beyond textbooks and lectures to the challenging, hands-on world of research. Students work with faculty members on a variety of research projects.
McMillan has published numerous articles in the area of technology management and has conducted executive education seminars in the area of high-technology management, strategy and leadership.
He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the American University and Temple University.
University Faculty Senate
welcomes new executive secretary 
Susan C. Youtz, special project associate in the Division of Outreach and Cooperative Extension, has been appointed executive secretary of the University Faculty Senate, effective Sept. 1.
As executive secretary, Youtz will be responsible for managing the Senate Office and supporting and facilitating the Senate in the performance of its duties. She replaces George J. Bugyi, who recently retired from the University.
A faculty member in the College of Health and Human Development for 19 years, Youtz spent almost a decade as a Faculty Senator. She chaired her college's curriculum committee and the Senate Curricular Affairs Committee, and was the first chair of the Senate's Intra-University Relations Committee, among other Senate service.
In addition to her most recent positions, Youtz served 12 years as an assistant director in the School of Nursing, where she coordinated the school's undergraduate programs and directed the Rural Nursing Center Project, funded by the Philadelphia-based Independence Foundation. During 1999-2000 she was an Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Outreach and Cooperative Extension. Currently she is providing leadership for a multi-media educational initiative sponsored by Penn State Public Broadcasting and Cooperative Extension, called "Creating Health."
Youtz received her bachelor's degree in nursing from The College of New Jersey; her master's degree in nursing from New York University; and her doctorate in counselor education from Penn State.
Eloise Stuhr named executive
director for leadership gifts
Eloise Dunn Stuhr has been named to the newly created position of executive director, leadership gifts, in the Division of Development and Alumni Relations.
She will create and manage a program based on the identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of University donors and prospective donors at the highest levels of gift capacity.
Reporting directly to Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Rod Kirsch, she will assist President Graham B. Spanier and Kirsch in their work with key University donors and volunteers. Stuhr has been executive director of university development since 1996.
Stuhr joined the University in 1995 as director of development for University Libraries. Before that, she served as director of development and alumni relations and assistant dean in the School of Law at the University of Oregon, and executive director of the University of Oregon Foundation and assistant vice president for public affairs and development. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Vanderbilt University and attended the Georgia State University Graduate School of Management.
Local radio personality to
manage student station, WKPS-FM
Jeff Brown, co-host of the morning show for Classic Rock 93.7, The Bus, and former operations manager for the State College station, has joined the College of Communications as manager of the University's student radio station, WKPS-FM.
The appointment is the result of a recent partnership between the College of Communications, the Division of Student Affairs and WKPS. Brown will work with the station in an advisory capacity to ensure the station's programming and output is optimized. (See related story). He wants to improvethe station's sound without losing the edginess and the voice the students have created.
Since 1999, Brown has served as The Bus's morning on-air talent, a role he will continue to play despite stepping down from the position of operations manager. He said he is looking forward to working with students and plans to eventually teach courses in the College of Communications, as well.
Brown enrolled in Slippery Rock State College in 1977 to pursue a degree in elementary education. But a stint as a DJ at WRCK-FM, the college's student station where he eventually became general manager, inspired him to change his major to communications.
After college, he went on to work as an on-air personality and programming and promotions director at two small stations in Texas before moving to larger markets in Syracuse, N.Y., and Pittsburgh.
In 1988, Brown joined State College station 3WZ as operations manager and air personality, a position he held until 1998. During his tenure, the station went from a start-up to the top-rated station in the market.
It also was during this period that Brown became actively involved in a number of charitable organizations. He has served on the board of directors for a number of local charities and has been active in such organizations as the Second Mile and the American Cancer Society.