• SOBA Home
• - Academic Programs
• - Current News
• - Our Mission
• - Letter from the Dean
• - History
• - Contacts
• - AACSB Accreditation
• Visit Us On Facebook

Current News

 

Fort Lewis College Among America's
Best Public Colleges

Fort Lewis College has been named one of America’s Best Public Colleges by Forbes magazine in its 2009 edition of “America’s Best Colleges.” FLC ranked 41st on a list of 100 public colleges and universities. The overall rank on the America’s Best Colleges list is 246 on a list of 600. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are more than 4,000 college campuses in the U.S.

Forbes describes a good college as one that meets student needs, focusing on things which concern most incoming students: Will the courses be rewarding and interesting? Will I get a good job after graduation? Is it likely that I can graduate in four years? Will I incur heavy debt in order to obtain a college degree? Fort Lewis College has done an excellent job of addressing all of these student concerns, and we continue to search for ways to improve.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/06/best-public-colleges-opinions-colleges-09-top.html

---

Congratulations and Recognition to Tino Sonora
Awarded a Fulbright Specialists Program grant

Fort Lewis College professor Tino Sonora isn't some kind of storm chaser, still ... he can't help being drawn to the center of a potential disaster. And thanks to his being awarded a Fulbright Specialists Program grant, he will get to study the middle of that storm later this spring.

The Fulbright Specialists Program is run the by the Department of State.  It provides funding to send U.S. scholars abroad and encourage foreign scholars to visit the United States. The program furnishes a stipend and covers travel expenses of visiting and traveling academics.

Thanks to the award, Sonora, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics in the School of Business Administration, will be spending six weeks in May and June working at the University of Zagreb , in Croatia. While at the University, Sonora will be teaching a graduate level statistics course, researching, collaborating on a textbook, and helping the University's Economics faculty revamp their graduate program while improving their English.

"And I'll hopefully be getting in some sailing on the Adriatic," he adds.

Croatia is still recovering from a recent civil war and trying to transition into the European economic system. And Sonora's timing for visiting there is perfect -- even if it has a rather lurid appeal that only an economist could appreciate.

"Croatia is representative of the rest of Eastern Europe. It's a country where in 2007 the foreign debt was ninety percent of its Gross Domestic Product, and it's probably worse today," Sonora explains. "This debt could destroy their economy, and so could take down the banks they are indebted to."

A dire outlook for many, but it's a fascinating field of study for a professor of macroeconomics. "I'm looking forward to seeing what happens over there," Sonora says. "This will be the biggest test of the European economy, and it'll be interesting to be there and see what those European banks can do. There's a chance the European banking system could go into free fall. So, although it's kind of like the appeal of a disaster, it's exciting to be at the center of those things."

Sonora specializes in the regional effects of monetary policies -- and in Croatia he will be inside an enormous economic laboratory, offering him a chance to intimately study economic integration in Eastern Europe.

"Eastern Europe and transitioning economies are very interesting economics-wise, because they're fairly close to Western economies," he explains. "The next logical question is, are they eligible to join the European Economic Zone? It's also a test for nearby countries like Bulgaria and Romania -- how well can they integrate, as well?"

Perhaps ironically, Sonora's excursion into potential economic disaster will yield a profit for Fort Lewis, when Sonora returns home with his lessons and insights, and shares them with the faculty and students here.

"I'm the only person at FLC who focuses on macroeconomics and economic integration. So this gives me a chance to work with other economists with the same interests and skills," he explains. "Plus, I don't get to teach these kinds of grad classes over here. So that's very exciting. "

---

Congratulations and Recognition to Steve Stovall
Winner of the Alice Admire Outstanding Teacher Award- 2009

This award is named for the late Alice Admire, an Assistant Professor of English at Fort Lewis College at the time of her retirement in 1974. Describing Alice Admire as a teacher in 1971, English Department Chair Maynard Fox wrote that "I discovered the essential secret to her success as a teacher: she vibrates concern for her students without in any way being obvious about it. It is just her natural way and they respond to it."  Steve’s nominations described the same attributes and many more; we wish to recognize this outstanding career achievement.

---

Congratulations and Recognition to Dr.Brian Hanks
Winter 2009 Featured Scholar

Two of the few constants in the field of computer science are that the field is constantly changing and it is consistently difficult for many students. These assertions lead Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Information Systems Dr. Brian Hanks to focus his research on helping computer science teachers teach better.

“Learning computer science is really hard for many, many students, and it’s been hard since the first computer programming class,” Dr. Hanks explains. “It’s like learning a new language, but also learning how to think in a different way, all at the same time.”

He notes that sometimes barriers to learning occur before a student ever steps into a classroom. Often preconceived notions that computer science is a difficult and solitary pursuit give students doubts about succeeding in the field.

To dispel such notions, Dr. Hanks focuses his research on pair-programming, in which two people work on the same programming problem at the same time. In fact, his research and publications have distinguished him as one of the top pairprogramming experts in the country.

“Pair-programming is collaborative and it brings up a lot more of the social aspects of programming,” he states. “There’s a lot of research—including mine—that has shown that students who pair in their first course are going to be much more successful and much more likely to pursue a computing major.”

“You get better quality and you produce programs much faster and you’re able to pursue more design options. So you don’t go down a wrong track or get stuck. The whole idea is that when you get stuck you have somebody there to help you get unstuck.”

Dr. Hanks recently completed a research project with one of his students that examined distributed pairprogramming, in which the programmers work from separate locations. The project looked at the effects and importance of factors such as hand gestures and physically being in the same room as people program.

So successful was their work that Dr. Hanks and his student will present their findings at the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education in Tennessee.

All this comes from a college professor that didn’t set out to be a college professor. Growing up in California, Dr. Hanks discovered computers in the early days of the technology. He and a high school friend managed to convince the local college to allow them access to the school’s computer system. From that point on, he was hooked.

His education followed his interests and he earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of California-Santa Cruz in computer science. After graduating, he began his career in the commercial computer programming world, but eventually found himself becoming restless.

“I had spent 20 years working in the software industry in the Silicon Valley area and got a little tired of it,” he recalls. “I was feeling like I needed to do something else that was going to be more fulfilling for me. I also felt like the things I was doing weren’t really contributing much to society.”

So, Dr. Hanks left the commercial world and returned to UC-Santa Cruz and earned his Ph.D. in computer science “with the goal of finding a nice, small college like Fort Lewis where I could teach and have a real impact and focus on teaching.”

He indeed found what he was looking for and moved to Durango to begin his career at Fort Lewis College in 2004.

In his time here, he has found that the breadth of a liberal arts education has tremendous advantages for students studying computer science.

“There are a lot of diverse elements that are important in computing. There are elements of psychology that apply. There are elements of sociology, philosophy, ethics and ethical behavior. These are things that if you
go to an engineering school you don’t necessarily get.”

With all he does as a scholar, researcher and teacher, Dr. Hanks does find time to get away from the computer. He enjoys hiking and skiing, a pastime he didn’t learn until moving here, and spending time with his family.

Also on his list of hobbies are reading mystery novels because, as he puts it, “I don’t have to think about them too hard.” With all he does at Fort Lewis College, who could blame him?

---

 

2009-2010 course offerings