California State University trustees have appointed a highly accomplished leader at a time that the system is dealing with major budget challenges. Timothy P. White will be the chancellor of the CSU system, the nation's largest four-year university system.

White is chancellor at UC Riverside, among the most diverse campuses in the state. He raised $100 million for a new medical school at Riverside, a skill he will need as he takes charge of the 23-campus CSU system. White is a serious academic, but showed an every-man side by appearing in disguise last year on "Undercover Boss."

Budget cuts have forced the CSU system to raise tuition, limit enrollment and reduce class offerings. Parents and students rightly are concerned about access to CSU campuses, as well as getting the classes they need to graduate in four years. Trustees have already instituted a 5% tuition increase for next year if Proposition 30 on the Nov. 6 ballot fails.

The medical school at UC Riverside showed White's visionary thinking and ability to get things done. The San Joaquin Valley was fighting for a medical school at the same time as Riverside, yet our region is still trying to get that task accomplished.

White earned a bachelor's degree from Fresno State, a master's degree from Cal State Hayward and a doctorate from UC Berkeley. He played water polo and was on the swim team at Fresno State. In 1994, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Fresno State's School of Health and Human Services and three years later was named a distinguished alumnus.

White was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and his parents immigrated to Canada and then to California when he was young. White was the first member of his family to go to college. With that background, White understands the plight of many of the students at the 23 CSU campuses. Education gave him opportunities, just as it has given opportunities to others in our state.

Investing in education is an investment in our state. CSU and UC graduates generally stay in California and contribute to the economy and our quality of life.

We believe that White brings the necessary background and skill to meet the challenges of a university system that must reshape itself to compete in the current economic environment.

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EDITORIAL: CSU's new leader brings a diverse background to job

The Carthage Independent School District Alumni Association announced the 2012 inductees that will be honored in the districts Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.

This years inductees are: Kay Lynn Vincent Brumbaugh, class of 1985; JoAnn Hooper Parker, class of 1964; and John Randall Randy Taylor, class of 1971.

The honorees and their families will enjoy a day of festivities at homecoming on October 12. CHS juniors and seniors will be inspired by the lives and accomplishments of these graduates at a school assembly. A reception and program will follow at 4:30 until 6:30 p.m. at the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, and everyone is invited. The honorees will be introduced and presented keys to the city during the Carthage Homecoming ceremonies at Bulldog Stadium.

Everyone is encouraged to attend the reception, the ballgame, and the homecoming activities.

Randy Taylor graduated from Carthage High School in 1971. He attended Panola College before entering the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with Honors with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting in December 1974. While in college, Randy worked as an intern for the U. S Treasury Department as a national bank examiner. After graduation, Taylor started his career in Houston with the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche as a certified public accountant. He later was vice president of Gulf States Oil & Refining and the executive vice president for Thompson Development.

In December 1981, he founded Taylor Service Company in Carthage. For the next 15 years, the company grew to include six operating locations and was one of the largest privately held saltwater disposal operators in Texas. Randy sold Taylor Service Company in 1996 to Dawson Production Services, now part of Key Energy Services.

After moving to Austin in 2001, Randy remained in the oil & gas industry as an independent investor and disposal well operator. Since 2003, he has been the president and chief executive officer of Pinnergy which has grown to over 750 employees with operating locations in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, covering some of the most active oil and gas regions in the country. Taylor is also involved in numerous other business activities.

Randy is married to Kathy Pierce Taylor, a 1972 Carthage graduate. They have been married 39 years and have three children, all of whom graduated from CHS. Their daughter, Kelly Taylor Simmons, lives in Houston with her husband, Mike Simmons and their son, Pierce Randall Simmons. Randy & Kathys twin sons, Brandon Taylor and Justin Taylor both live in Austin. Justin is married to Jessica Jaynes.

When in Carthage, Randy was an active member of First United Methodist Church, serving as finance chair and together with Kathy, led fundraising efforts for the churchs Capital Building Campaign. Randys community involvement while in Carthage consisted of serving on the Panola General Hospital Board, Panola County Chamber of Commerce Board, president of the Panola County Industrial Foundation Board, and president of the Carthage Noon Lions Club. He supported youth athletics by sponsoring teams as well as serving as coach for soccer and Dixie League baseball. He also served on the board of the Azleway Ranch for Boys outside of Tyler. He continues to be involved in the Carthage community as a member of the Carthage Education Foundations Board of Directors.

Taylor is presently serving on the Capital One Bank Advisory Board for Texas and has served on the committee for the Texas Railroad Commission Regulatory Reform. He and Kathy are members of Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin, recently serving as chairs of the Stewardship Campaign for the church. Randy is a past member of the Endowment Fund and Finance Committee. He and Kathy are major contributors to Dell Childrens Medical Center, St. Davids Foundation Scholarship Program, the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Helping Hand Home for Children, Hospice Austin, and the University of Texas.

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Taylor honored as Distinguished Alumni at CISD

Four faculty members who themselves were first-generation college students gathered in Boylston Hall Thursday to offer advice to current Harvard students. The event, sponsored by the Freshman Deans Office, covered topics including adjusting to freshman year and the stigma that first-generation college students face.

Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds introduced the panelists and the moderator, Anya Bernstein Bassett, the social studies director of undergraduate studies.

This may be the first of many conversations we can have about this, Hammonds said.

Tommie Shelby, a professor of philosophy and African and African American studies, said that getting into college was a pretty big shock.

There was a language that I did not speak and they all spoke, said Alexandra Shields, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. There were these little cultural references that everyone seemed to know and I had no idea what they were saying.

Sue Brown, the resident dean of Elm Yard, echoed her colleagues sense of alienation.

I was missing the map that a lot of my classmates had, she said.

The panelists also offered advice to first-generation students.

Put yourself out there, said Matthew K. Nock, a psychology professor.

Shields encouraged students to look for role models.

The rest is here:
Faculty Discuss Experiences as First-Generation Students

William Kromer, a longtime English and Spanish teacher at Downsville Central School, died Tuesday from injuries suffered Aug. 23, when he struck a deer with his motorcycle on Route 97 in Hancock.

Kromer, 66, of Hancock, had been in a coma at Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Johnson City since the accident.

Family and former students recalled him as brilliant and loving man.

Its very, very heartbreaking to see such a sad ending for such a wonderful person, said Stacie Haynes, a former student of Kromer and former president of the Downsville Central School Alumni Association. He was so kind and caring, and he still had so much to offer to us. He really was a rock for those students, his daughter, Rosetta Kromer said. He really supported them with a very optimistic and positive (outlook). For the most part, thats who he was. Thats definitely who he was.

Kromer began teaching in Downsville in 1974 and retired in 2004, his widow, Blanca, said. He began teaching Spanish at the Family Foundation School in Hancock shortly thereafter, she added.

Blanca Kromer said she met her future husband at Grand Central Terminal in New York City shortly after she arrived from Lima, Peru, to study at Columbia University.

He approached me half in Spanish asking me where was I from, she said. And I thought, This is going to be tough, because I hardly spoke English.

After I met him in Grand Central station, we exchanged addresses, and I said, OK, maybe I will write to him, and a few weeks later I got a letter from him, half in Spanish That started our relationship.

And then he said to me he wanted to go out on his motorcycle. The only wheels he had was the motorcycle. He was an avid motorcycle rider, very cautious. Thats whats killing me.

Kromer was riding a 900cc 2008 Kawasaki Vulcan at the time of the accident, police reports and family said.

Excerpt from:
Beloved ex-Downsville teacher dies from injuries

Homecoming is a time of team support, school spirit and for the students, faculty and alumni at NDSU to fully display their Bison pride. In the midst of adorning buildings and hallways with Bison dcor, dressing in the beloved colors of green and gold and participating in school ceremonies, pep rallies and athletic events, we might miss the positive effects that our school spirit has on our health.

When a large group of people comes together in support of each other and of the community they form, the energies they emit are physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. School spirit boosts confidence, dissolves social differences between peers, breaks student-teacher barriers and brings out sportsmanship and unity of the entire population.

Because it is viewed as -- and feels like -- a mini community, NDSU gives its populace the opportunity to feel the power and strength behind group support, especially during homecoming.

Studies conducted by Columbia University Medical Center state that positive emotions, such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment, all of which are weaved into an individuals participation in homecoming activities, have an association with cardiovascular health.

The prevention of heart disease is increased by 22 percent if positive emotional experiences are more prevalent than negative experiences throughout the course of ones life.

Karina Davidson, associate professor of medicine and psychiatry, suggests other influences of positive emotion on health as well. Individuals experiencing positive emotions may have longer periods of rest or relaxation physiologically and may recover more quickly from stressors that can cause physiological damage, she ensures.

Cheering at the Bison athletic events not only will help improve your heart health and your ability to sleep soundly through the night, but will also reduce your levels of stress generated by an overload of homework or a test-packed week.

More healthy outcomes of having school spirit are improvement of your immune system, reduction of physical discomfort and increases in your ability to recover from surgery or illness.

As you parade around in costumes of green and gold, support the accomplishments of our royalty, laugh at club skits and songs and cheer for our Bison athletes, remember that your feelings of excitement and pride are not only supporting your school but also your personal health.

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Oct. 4

Cheshire: Cheshire Womens Club monthly meeting and luncheon, 11 a.m., Cheshire Senior Center, 240 Maple Ave. Followed by a program at 1 p.m. with Lucindas Hair, which specializes in assisting people suffering from natural and medical hair loss including chemotherapy. Open to the public. For information, call Trudy at 203-272-1772.

Guilford: Dr. Harlan Krumholzm presents All About Cholesterol, 7:15-8:15 p.m., Guilford Free Library, 67 Park St. Krumholzm is a professor of cardiology, epidemiology and public health at the Yale University School of Medicine, and director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. Program is free, all are welcome. Reserve your place at http://www.guilfordfreelibrary.org or call 203-453-8282.

New Haven: The Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Yale Sustainable Food Project panel discussion on health, safety and sustainability in the modern food system, 4:30 p.m. in the Sterling Law Building, Room 120, Yale School of Law, 127 Wall St. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For information, visit envirocenter.yale.edu or contact Susanne Stahl at susanne.stahl@yale.edu or 203-432-5967.

Seymour: Family Place Playgroup for infants to age 5, 10:30 a.m., Seymour Public Library, 46 Church St. Many different types of play, with a craft table and circle time. Call 203-888-3903 or visit http://www.seymourpubliclibrary.org.

Stratford: Performance by Sentimental Journey of Shelton, 1-3 p.m., Baldwin Senior Center, 1000 W. Broad St. Aetna Insurance will provide refreshments. Tickets are $2. Call 203-385-4050.

Oct. 6

Milford: Baby Fair, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Milford Hospital, 300 Seaside Ave. Features information, education, giveaways and raffles for new parents and parents to be, and to meet obstetricians. No registration is needed. For information, visit http://www.milfordhospital.org or call 203 876-4004.

Orange: Orange Historical Society tag sale, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at The Academy Museum, 605 Orange Center Road. Weather permitting. Call 203-795-3106.

Oct. 7 Continued...

The rest is here:
Greater New Haven upcoming events: Oct. 4-11

Not too many years ago, and certainly within living memory of many of its graduates, the University of Denver was known as a school with a first-class hockey team and some distinguished alumni but not much else.

On Wednesday, DU places another feather in what is now a festooned hat: It hosts Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the first 2012 presidential debate in the campus' Magness Arena, part of the gleaming Ritchie Center complex.

Daniel Ritchie, the center's namesake, will have to feel a surge of pride.

"It's nice to see, but really, the feeling of accomplishment is about 'we,' not 'me,' " said Ritchie, who served as DU's chancellor from 1989 to 2005, leaving a legacy that transformed the school.

The former chancellor is credited with laying the foundation for the school's big TV moment, along with elevating it to a nationally respected institution that draws an international student body and top academics to a compact jewel box of a campus in south Denver.

"I think DU is at a level we never would have reached without Dan Ritchie leading the charge," said Joy Burns, who owns the Burnsley Hotel and serves on DU's board of trustees, which she chaired under Ritchie's tenure as chancellor.

Ritchie certainly did not accomplish this alone. He had a hard-working staff, professors who bought into his vision, and a cohort of area citizens who dipped deep into their wallets after he challenged them for matching grants and other donations.

And he led by example.

Ritchie didn't take a paycheck as chancellor. In persuading DU board members to participate in matching grants to the school, he donated his sprawling Grand River Ranch in Kremmling to underwrite the matches.

Since he

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Daniel Ritchie: The man who laid the foundation for DU's big moment

Murrieta Valley alumnus Skyler Ridley thought about stepping away from the football field this year.

The BYU junior wide receiver got married in the summer and he had higher priorities on his list, such as academics.

"I am planning to attend medical school," Ridley said. "Getting the grades and being successful in the classroom is quite important to be able to get into medical school. I wanted to be able to dedicate the time necessary to my schooling. Just getting married this summer, I needed to begin working so I could provide. With football, it's difficult to work because the hours are so long, as well as on top of school."

However, his wife, Jasmine, encouraged Ridley to stick with football and his perseverance paid off.

The 6-foot, 182 pound Ridley registered his first career catch on a 6-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Riley Nelson in BYU's nationally televised 30-6 win over Washington State in its season opener Aug. 30. Ridley's scoring grab was the first touchdown of BYU's season.

He finished the game with six receptions for 54 yards.

"It's something that I will cherish for the rest of my life, to know that all the hard work has paid off," Ridley said.

The Cougars (3-2) are playing their second straight season as an independent after departing the Mountain West Conference, and the upcoming schedule features ranked teams such as No. 14 Oregon State (Oct. 13) and No. 9 Notre Dame (Oct. 20). Even though BYU no longer has a conference championship to play for, Ridley said coach Bronco Mendenhall stresses to his players that their BYU affiliation gives them plenty of motivation to play their best.

"BYU is a private religious institution, and the majority of students are of the LDS faith," Ridley said. "We feel like playing football gives us an opportunity to stand out as a light to the people for good. That is a big motivating factor for us. Through football excellence, we can be, as he says, flagbearers, not only to the fans which we have, but to the country and other teams. That has been a big motivation for me, playing football for deeper and more meaningful reasons."

After redshirting as a freshman in 2007, Ridley spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons abroad on a mission in Manchester, England. He was able not only to serve the British people during his mission, but came across people from all over Europe and even African immigrants from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Congo.

Link:
ALUMNI REPORT: Murrieta Valley's Ridley thriving in Provo

NEW YORK, NY - While many college graduates are struggling to find jobs, alumni from certain schools are regularly pulling in six-figure salaries.

For the second year in a row, Princeton University's students have been pulling in the biggest paychecks, according to new data from salary research site PayScale.com. This year, Princeton graduates with at least 10 years of experience in their field of work are earning an average salary of $137,000.

Rounding out the top 10, are Harvey Mudd College, California Institute of Technology, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lehigh University, the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Babson College and Stanford University.

Graduates from these schools earned an average mid-career salary of $122,500 -- up 5% from last year. This year's increase follows three years of declines, according to PayScale.

The schools with the highest-paid graduates typically fall into one of two categories: They're either engineering schools, since engineering is the highest-paid major, or they're very prestigious, so companies tend to recruit these grads first -- and pay them handsomely -- when making hiring decisions.

"Not only do [the most prestigious schools like Stanford] offer high-paying majors as well, but there's a level of notoriety that allows people to move into jobs more easily and get higher-paying jobs, and there's also a strong alumni network that helps you get jobs," said Katie Bardaro, lead economist at PayScale.

Graduates earn the highest starting salaries at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where alumni with five years of experience or less make an average of $76,000. The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and Massachusetts Institute of Technology follow, with average starting salaries of $72,200 and $68,400.

Among the 10 schools with the lowest-paid graduates, the average mid-career salary remained steady this year, at $44,490. The five schools with the lowest-paid graduates were The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (the online division), Benedict College in South Carolina, Mississippi Valley State University, University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky, and Bethel University in Tennessee.

Lower earning potential is common among schools that offer traditionally low-paying majors, like art, said Bardaro. These schools are also often located in areas with lower cost of living, and many don't carry the same level of prestige as the top schools on the list, so it can be hard for students to stick out in a big stack of resumes.

Majors with the biggest pay-offs: The highest-paying majors this year were petroleum engineering, with an average mid-career salary of $163,000, followed by aerospace engineering, which pays an average $118,000. Meanwhile, child and family studies majors can work for more than 10 years in their field and still only earn an average $37,700. Social work is the next lowest-paying major, with a mid-career salary or $45,300.

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Want fat paycheck? Pick the right school