On Ca mpus
6
spring 2013 | st. Lawrence Universit y Magazine
Assistant Professor of Government
Shelley McConnell
is co-editor of
The
Sandinistas and Nicaragua since 1979
(
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011).
It includes a chapter by McConnell,
titled "The Uncertain Evolution of the
Electoral System," about Nicaragua's
electoral politics.
Emeritus Professor of Geography
Bill Romey
has spent half a century
studying the St. Lawrence River. He has
compiled significant portions of that
work, and his thoughts about it, in PDF
format, on a CD, "Following the
St. Lawrence River from the End of
Lake Ontario to the Cabot Strait: Field
Notes of a Geologist-Geographer,
1952-2012" (
Ash Lad Press, 2011).
More than 3,500 photos and 250 maps
supplement the text.
Piskor Professor of English
Sidney
Sondergard
,
working on the first
complete English translation of
Strange
Tales
from Liaozhai
(
short
stories by 18
th
-
century Chi-
nese writer Pu Songling),
has published the fifth of a
planned six volumes (Jain
Publishing, 2012). Like the
preceding volumes, this one features
illustrations by St. Lawrence graduates.
For examples, visit stlawu.edu/news/
sondergardbookfall12.html.
A roundup of news
from campus. f or
more, go to www.
stlawu.edu/news.
President William L. Fox ’75 has an-
nounced the creation of a Presidential
Commission on Diversity,
with Trustee
Marion Roach Smith '77 as chair. The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded
St. Lawrence a grant of $50,000 to sup-
port the commission's work. To learn
more about the commission's "Purpose
and Plan," visit stlawu.edu/president/
diversity_commission.html.
Minors in
Arabic studies and Chinese
studies
have been added to the Uni-
versity’s curriculum, effective next fall.
Meanwhile, the Japanese studies minor
has been discontinued.
The January “Break” is just another
opportunity for many students to
continue their studies.
Three students,
along with two economics professors,
traveled to Nepal
to study the effect
of financial support on literacy in that
country; see saintsinnepal.blogspot.com.
Another 16 students received grants to
conduct independent research in such
locations as Paraguay, Australia, Thai-
land, Jamaica, Spain and England.
—
NSB
Statistically, it is improbable that an entire family of five
would write a textbook together and get it published. Maybe
that's why the Lock family, including Cummings Profes-
sor of Mathematics Patti Frazer Lock and Burry Professor
of Statistics Robin Lock, were so determined to make it
happen. The Locks and all three of their children — Kari
Lock Morgan, Eric and Dennis '08 — are the authors of the
semi-eponymous text,
Statistics: Unlocking the Power of Data
(
Wiley, 2013).
“
Statistics isn't exactly the sexiest subject in school — (it)
usually means doing a lot of equations that don't seem to
have any relevance to your life,” says Nora Flaherty on North
Country Public Radio. This book presents a new way to teach
an introductory statistics course, using visual methods to en-
able students to effectively collect, analyze and interpret con-
clusions from data. Real data and real applications are used,
and all are problems or situations that students can relate to
in their lives, Flaherty says.
A companion to the book is a freely available set of online
statistical tools. Called StatKey, it was developed mostly at
St. Lawrence, by Associate Professor of Computer Science Ed
Harcourt, Kevin Angstadt '14 and former faculty member
Richard Sharp.
"
Interacting with our children, in a professional way, has
been very rewarding," says Patti Lock. Kari is an assistant pro-
fessor in statistical science at Duke University; Eric is pursu-
ing post-doctoral studies at Duke; and Dennis ’08 is working
toward his Ph.D. in statistics at Iowa State University. —MD
fyi
Jennifer Mccluskey
professors patti and r obin Lock, standing left to right, and
their children (from left) eric, Kari Morgan and Dennis ’08,
are the authors of a new statistics textbook.
A Lock on Statistics Pedagogy