Campus Review
            
            
              March 26, 2012
            
            
              Page 4
            
            
              
                MAA Southeastern Conference a Success
              
            
            
              
                by Cathie Aust, Emerita Professor of Mathematics
              
            
            
              
                More than 70 Attend Fourth Annual
              
            
            
              
                Civic Engagement Research Conference
              
            
            
              
                by Joseph Corrado, Political Science
              
            
            
              The 91st Annual Meeting of the
            
            
              Southeastern Section of the Mathematical
            
            
              Association of America (MAA) was a
            
            
              complex event. Officers of the
            
            
              Southeastern Section of the MAA planned
            
            
              an extensive program of faculty and stu-
            
            
              dent activities, and Clayton State provided
            
            
              the site for those activities, offered the
            
            
              support requested by the organizers, and
            
            
              provided supporting activities such as the
            
            
              Executive Dinner, the Conference Dinner,
            
            
              and a musical program at Spivey Hall.
            
            
              Pat yourselves on the back, take a bow,
            
            
              hoist a glass in celebration! Working
            
            
              together, we were great hosts for the con-
            
            
              ference. Again and again, Dean Dr. Lila
            
            
              Roberts, the members of the planning
            
            
              committee (Dr. Tony Giovannitti, Dr.
            
            
              Catherine Matos, Dr. Christopher
            
            
              Raridan, Dr. Anthony Stinson), and other
            
            
              members of CIMS faculty and staff heard
            
            
              high praise for every aspect of our plan-
            
            
              ning and arrangements.
            
            
              They were impressed by great signage,
            
            
              complementary rides on a golf carts on a
            
            
              rainy Friday morning, efficient onsite reg-
            
            
              istration, convenient placement of ven-
            
            
              dors and refreshments, the exceptional
            
            
              quality of the catering services, media and
            
            
              computer support for speakers, beautiful
            
            
              decorations at the banquets, an outstand-
            
            
              ing program at Spivey Hall, the quality of
            
            
              work by student volunteers, excellent
            
            
              facilities, a beautiful campus, great hospi-
            
            
              tality, and the obvious campus-wide sup-
            
            
              port for our endeavors.
            
            
              It took all of a very large team to make it
            
            
              happen, and because of all of your efforts,
            
            
              we made a very positive impression on
            
            
              faculty and students from across
            
            
              Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South
            
            
              Carlina, and Tennessee. And, oh yes,
            
            
              many of you had to take time away from
            
            
              your spring break as well.
            
            
              As local arrangements coordinator, I
            
            
              thank you for helping me to provide a
            
            
              great service to the Southeastern Section
            
            
              of the MAA and enhance the image of
            
            
              Clayton State University.
            
            
              On Friday Mar. 16, Clayton State
            
            
              University's Civic Engagement Council
            
            
              and the New York Times sponsored the
            
            
              Fourth Annual Civic Engagement
            
            
              Research Conference at the National
            
            
              Archives at Atlanta.
            
            
              More than 70 people attended the confer-
            
            
              ence this year, which was once again
            
            
              highlighted by the presentation of the
            
            
              annual Ogden First Amendment Award.
            
            
              This year’s first place winner was Corinna
            
            
              Hills from Stockbridge, Ga., with an essay
            
            
              titled “Graffiti of the Internet.”  Kayla
            
            
              Rice, from McDonough, Ga., won second
            
            
              place.
            
            
              The Fifth Annual Ogden First
            
            
              Amendment Essay Contest is named in
            
            
              memory of James H. Ogden, Jr., late hus-
            
            
              band of Clayton State business professor
            
            
              Dr. Judith Ogden, and a lifelong support-
            
            
              er of First Amendment rights.
            
            
              The Conference’s keynote speakers, Ben
            
            
              Speight, organizing director of Teamster's
            
            
              local 728, and Tim Franzen and Shab
            
            
              Bashiri from Occupy Atlanta, addressed
            
            
              S.B. 469. This is a Georgia Senate bill that
            
            
              limits protest, a bill which has united the
            
            
              Tea Party, Occupy Atlanta, and unions,
            
            
              among
            
            
              others,
            
            
              in
            
            
              opposition.
            
            
              Presentations at the conference were
            
            
              Corinna Hills (right) receiving a plaque from Dr. Judith Ogden
            
            
              made by graduate and undergraduate stu-
            
            
              dents on various aspects of civic engage-
            
            
              ment as well.