ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., May 11, 2006 — The Leo J. Keenan Jr. and the Dr. James Martine Faculty Development Endowments annual luncheon was held May 4, affording the award recipients the opportunity to share the results of the work they produced in the 2005-2006 academic year, through the use of the funds, with the University community.
The endowments, established by Leslie “Les” C. Quick, III, and Eileen Quick in 2000, honors Dr. James Martine and the late Leo J. Keenan who were both members of the English faculty. Les Quick felt they both dedicated their lives to St. Bonaventure and the students here. The endowments are intended to provide funds to faculty engaged in activities designed to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process at St. Bonaventure.
The Martine endowment provides for funding of activities associated with the general education core curriculum, Clare College, while the Keenan endowment provides funds for all other areas. (A list of Martine Grants awarded for 2006-2007 is available in .pdf format.)
“With this gift, I hope to encourage others to imitate their selfless dedication to their profession, and to maintain the teaching quality and effectiveness that has always been a hallmark of St. Bonaventure,” said Quick.
Dr. David DiMattio, dean of Clare College, said, “Through the gracious generosity of Les Quick, Dr. Martine and Bob Kennan, representing his family, I know that much of what we accomplish in the core curriculum at Clare College, as well as across the University, would not be accomplished if it weren’t for Les Quick’s generosity.
“Looking forward with respect to Clare College, I want to draw on our professional schools to make it a well rounded core experience. We have to appreciate the fact that we all come from different disciplines and at the same time we are all housed in this Franciscan-based heritage.”
“It connects Bona’s rich past with its very vibrant present and supports the things that a lot of us from the Quicks on endorse and support. It is what Bona’s is all about,” said Dr. James Martine.
“My father worked for St. Bonaventure University for 52 years,” said Robert F. Keenan, associate director of planned giving and development officer for athletics. “During his career here, among other things, he was elected to the SBU Athletic Hall of Fame, the SBU Alumni Hall of Fame, the SBU ROTC Hall of Fame; he was the alumnus of the year and also received an honorary doctorate. Les and Eileen Quick also recognized him with the Keenan~Martine Grants. He told me that of all of the recognition he received from St. Bonaventure, this endowment from Les and Eileen, in his name, meant the most to him.”
Constance PierceA Martine Grant awarded to Constance Pierce, professor of visual and performing arts, encompassed examples of 30 Imaging Journals created by students who represent a wide variety of majors, including biology, finance, education, management, political science, sociology, accounting, art, music, physical education, languages, history and journalism.
“My Clare 109 sections attempted to excavate the depth and breadth of the human heart in its innate desire to engage in literacy and artistic expression,” she said. “ I provided alternative experiential modes of pondering texts, musical compositions and artworks. Each students creation became a synchronistic integration of image making with an array of visually expressed texts, critiques and reflection papers.”
Under a Keenan Grant, Dr. Dalton R. Hunkins of the Department of Computer Science, fostered collaboration between computer science majors and non-majors in producing a computer graphics artifact that required the development of 3D graphics content through revisions to two computer graphics courses taught at St. Bonaventure. (A list of Keenan Grants for 2006-2007 is available in .pdf format.)
“Students previously studied a traditional approach used in other universities for computer science majors studying computer graphics,” he said. “This new approach is for students to learn the ‘underpinnings’ of computer graphics and how 3D content is produced (rendered) to a 2D media (e.g., computer screen). The challenge is to keep the new content but also add back some of the content on the ‘rendering pipeline.’ This is important since it is traditional and considered by other universities as an integral part of an introduction to computer graphics for computer science majors.”
The review committee included: Paul Wieland (J/MC), Laura Peters (Arts), Kevin Vogel (Science), Alison More (Franciscan Institiute), Rene Wroblewski (Education) and Dave DiMattio (Clare College).