E H T Inside... Opinion The future “Courier” pg. 2 oncordia Sports Kvasnicka resigns pg. 4 Arts Talking to Tyrone pg. 5 Reviews “The Governator” pg. 8 ourierInvestigate. Inform. Ignite. Involve. Volume 5, Issue 13 Concordia University Irvine Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Strategic Plan Landis celebrates Academic reviewed BY JESSICA SCHOBER Showcase $1,000 victory STAFF WRITER Concordia completed its “Strategic Plan” in BY BETHANY LOESCH an inter-collegiate under- the Fall of 2010, after two years of reviewing the CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR graduate research confer- University’s identity and financial situation among ence the following fall. other topics. Although the plan has been finished Each year, Concordia gives students an oppor- In Tier I of this year’s for several months now, many students on campus tunity to work one-on-one with a faculty sponsor showcase, Joel Landis, seem to know nothing of it. on an undergraduate research project and then senior, was awarded first “Huh? What is it?” said Peter Henderson, se- compete against one another in the President’s place for his project titled, nior, which is the common student response to any Academic Showcase of Undergraduate Research. “Is China a Revisionist mention of the Strategic Plan. According to Concordia’s website, “the com- State? Examining China’s Concordia started putting together the Strate- petition incorporates projects from all disciplines, Military Rise Through gic Plan in the Fall of 2008. A task force of about 40 drawing entries from biology, English, theol- Power Transition Theory.” members included the President, Executive Coun- ogy, behavioral sciences, music, theatre, education, His faculty sponsor was Dr. cil, members of the Board of Regents and members business, communications, psychology, art, chem- Daniel van Voohris. of the Board of Trustees along with faculty, staff, istry, history, anthropology, linguistics and math- Landis researched the alumni and students. ematics. A panel of faculty, selected from across the probability of a war be- Nathan Carnahan, ASCUI President, is the disciplines, serves as judges for the showcase.” tween the U.S. and China. only student representative who has been a part of The two levels of competition in the show- He concluded that a war this planning committee from the beginning. case include Tier I for upperclassmen and Tier II was unlikely. “I think they wanted a consistent student voice for freshmen and sophomores. All students who “China’s military rise is from someone who wouldn’t be leaving soon,” said PHOTOS COURTESY MELINDA SCHULTEIS compete must write a research paper and create not of the size that would Carnahan. “It seemed drawn out. Former Presi- an academic poster. Finalists continue competing be expected for a state that is preparing for war,” Landis will be attending graduate school at dent Preus did not seem to have it as one of his through oral presentations. The winner from each Landis said. U.C. Davis next year where he received a full ride top priorities, and we were going above and be- tier is awarded the President’s Academic Showcase Landis originally began his research as a sam- to study international relations. yond to develop this plan. We were volunteering award and then has the opportunity to compete in ple paper for graduate school and did most of the As for what he plans on doing with the $1,000 our time. Without motivation, it was hard to get work over the summer at in prize money, Landis wants to save most of it for things done.” San Jose State Univeristy the future. He also said, “To be honest, I’ll prob- Dr. Peter Senkbeil, Vice President for Academ- and Stanford University. ably take my girlfriend out to dinner since I haven’t ic Affairs and Associate Provost, agrees that two “The paper was es- done that in a long time.” years is a bit longer than it usually takes to create sentially done in Novem- In Tier II, Paige Finley, freshman, won first such plans. ber,” he said. “I’ve con- place for her research on, “Insights to the activa- “We intentionally delayed the planning as we tinued it and reworked it tion of Sod1: Determining if Over Expressing CCS changed presidents and chief financial advisors. until now.” st, C231S, C229S and C229-231S rescues Sod1 We wanted President Krueger and Kevin Tilden Although Landis en- Growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.” Dr. Lindsay [Chief Financial Officer] to be fully on board be- joyed exploring a subject Kane-Barnese was her faculty sponsor. fore we continued,” Senkbeil said. that is of great curiosity Finley plans to continue her research in the fu- “Dr. Len Hightower [Assistant to the President to him, he feels relieved ture. “I definitely think it was worth it,” she said. “I for Planning] really wanted us to fully define our to be finished. think it will help me in my career because I want mission and vision before moving on. So we spent “I’m glad it’s over to have my own practice and do research that I can a lot of time looking at what others think about us with, but considering apply to my practice.” and how we see ourselves. From there we moved I’m going to grad school, She also enjoyed the experience of competing on to the idea board,” Carnahan said. it’s something I’ll be do- in the showcase. “It was a really nice feeling to feel The team narrowed down the “Concordia Ex- ing over and over again,” that I accomplished my project and was recognized perience” to five themes: Christ-centered, student- he said. for it,” Finley said. centered, community-centered, aligned with the LCMS and focused on vocation/call. The final plan includes strategies pertaining to academic enter- prise, institutional identity, student experience and Changes to website marketing showcase institutional operations. “This is clarifying not re-identifying,” Senk- university distinction beil said. “With institutional operations, we want to make wise decisions informed by data and the BY JOCELYN POST “We live in a world that is story driven,” Hardy on. In addition, Concordia can now be found on right people. Student experience includes strate- EDITOR-IN-CHIEF said. “Why don’t we just tell stories that share our Facebook, YouTube & Vimeo. gies not just for retention but also for quality.” people with the world?” Gary McDaniel, Executive Vice President of The purpose of the Strategic Plan is not to Student and Enrollment Services, Communica- Currently featured on the home page is the first Student and Enrollment Services, believes Hardy’s create any ideas. “The Strategic Plan helps us sift tions, Admissions and the Web Team are partner- round of stories, including pieces on the Around- expertise in search engine marketing (SEM) and through. It’s a filtering process, not brainstorming. ing together with Trusted Technical Solutions to the-World Semester and the Master of Coaching search engine optimization (SEO) will help to not It doesn’t generate ideas but gives people a voice,” “makeover” Concordia’s website. and Athletic Administration Program. The goal is only “drive traffic” to the new website but also to Senkbeil said. The idea for this makeover came last spring to eventually have a story on every program, ma- make it more user-friendly. SEM involves actively The Strategic Plan also includes room for de- when the University received numerous com- jor and department. The second round of stories is promoting Concordia through banner advertise- veloping a new capital campaign. plaints regarding its website’s accessibility. A few currently being brainstormed by the Story Edito- ments on various websites while SEO focuses on “We will first do a feasibility study. The last months later, Rick Hardy, Associate Vice President rial Committee and will feature the Nursing Pro- increasing Concordia’s rank when certain key capital campaign built [Grimm Hall]. The next for Enrollment Management, was hired. gram and Christ College. phrases—such as “MBA Program Southern Cali- campaign won’t take place until several years from Curious about how the University was describ- “We’re going to take the ideas and the tools that fornia”—are typed into search engines. The goal is now. At that time, we will have a variety of options ing itself, Hardy concluded that the design of Con- we brought out on the home page and now have to get Concordia on the front page of each search. to consider,” Senkbeil said. cordia’s former website lacked heart. Through the them run one level deeper on the Admissions and “We’re trying to eliminate the frustration of the These options include—but are not lim- creation of the “Story Campaign,” Hardy along with program pages,” Merrick said. He anticipates the user,” McDaniel said. ited to—an extension of the library arts center, Mark Merrick, Chief Operating Officer of Trusted makeover will be complete in December—one year Recently, the University has received “sponta- a research science building and more office and Technical Solutions, hopes to showcase what truly after the process began. neous” emails from those originally dissatisfied class space. makes Concordia distinctive—its implementation In addition to creating more of these longer, with the website’s functionality, commenting on According to Senkbeil, including all the de- of the Core Curriculum coupled with the Univer- formal videos, the idea of incorporating shorter, what an improvement they have experienced. tails, the Strategic Plan amounted to 160 pages. sity’s “faith without mandate” Lutheran heritage. more descriptive ones is being entertained along “I think that Concordia’s new website is easy The Board of Regents recommended creating sev- Trusted Technical Solutions serves as a website with the inclusion of detailed text storeies for “left- to read and easy to access,” said Kerri Kimmel, eral shorter versions.