Highlights from BYU Colleges

Family Home and Social Sciences

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  BYU family life professor Larry Nelson is the lead author on a study about “problematic media” causing social withdrawal. Problematic media includes video games, gambling and pornography. The study was published in Developmental Psychology.

• Rebecca DeSchweinitz, a BYU associate history professor, helped design American Girl doll Melody. DeSchweinitz served on an advisory bored for three years helping to make sure Melody’s backstory, set in early 1960’s Detroit, is historically accurate.

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

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  The construction of the new engineering building has created a lot of excitement and attention, leading to the creation of a website dedicated to the project. On top of watching the ground breaking ceremony, those interested can access a live video feed of the construction.

David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies

• BYU student Michael Swain received the Boren Scholarship from the National Security Education Program to study language in Japan for the upcoming 2016-17 academic year. He will study at the Kokusai College of Foreign Language for 10 months.
• Alissa Murdoch, a BYU French teaching major, is volunteering for an organization in France called Les Petits Frères des Pauvres. She is working with elderly people who have Alzheimer’s Disease.

Marriott School of Management

• Four MBA students of the Marriot School’s class of 2016 were highlighted by Poets & Quants. Maya Inoue, Christie Clark Rasmussen and Dale Tolley made the MBAs to Watch list and Kirk Steele made the Best and Brightest list.

College of Life Sciences

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  Emerald Ash Borers, beetles known for destroying ash trees and crops, are nearing Utah. BYU researchers are studying the beetles hoping to find a way to slow down the insects’ migration.

College of Humanities

• Grant Lundberg was appointed as the chair of the Department of German and Russian. He is replacing Michelle Stott James, who has finished her term of service. Lundberg has taught at BYU since 1999.
• BYU hosted the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages workshop. The speaker, Troy Cox talked about the purpose of the Oral Proficiency Interview exam, which is conducted to find out what a person can do with a second language and with whom they can communicate.

College of Fine Arts and Communications

• BYU will be performing a live stage production of “Chariots of Fire,” a play based on the stories of British runners Liddell and Harold Abrahams in the 1924 Olympic games. Permission to perform the play was given in early June and the historical drama will be performed in March 2017.
• Wichita Kansas hosted BYU students participating in the Disney play, “Beauty and the Beast.”
• Dr. Kenneth Hartvigsen has been hired as the Curator of American Art for BYU’s Museum of Art. Hartvigsen was hired after Dr. Marian Wardle, who has served as a curator for 14 years, retired.

College of Nursing

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  The Nursing school recently sent out acceptances to their program to 40% of applicants. They also announced that applications for Winter 2017 would be available on August 15, 2016.

• The BS and MS degrees offered by the College of Nursing recently received a 10 year accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The accreditation is based on a review of how the college implemented the American Association of Colleges of Nursing guidelines for undergraduate and graduate programs.

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

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  BYU physics professor Karine Chesnel studies nanomagnetism, or magnetic behaviors occurring on a microscopic scale. She has discovered a way to control the “magnetic domain memory,” which could lead to magnetic data storage.

J. Reuben Clark Law School

• Dr. Maybell Romero, a Law Professor at BYU’s Law School, was a guest on BYUradio. They discussed the programs and funding behind the public defender system, particularly in Utah. The episode aired on June 28, 2016.

Religious Education

• BYU’s Family History Conference will be held on July 26-29 at the BYU Conference center. Over 160 family history workshops will be offered in a variety of skill levels. FamilySearch President and CEO Steven Rockwood and genealogist Paul Milner will be the keynote speakers. A youth camp for youth ages 14-18 will also be offered.

Campus News

• Authors and/or illustrators of books such as “The Babysitters Club” series, “Tea Rex” series, “Beast Feast”, and “Flora and the Flamingo” will be coming to the BYU Symposium on Books for Young Readers during July 14-15 at the Provo City Library.
• Astrophysical Journal published a new research that acts as a guidebook to help the discovery of interstellar comets. The comets, which come from other solar systems, are only theorized to exist. The research is an extension of former BYU student Nathaniel Cook’s undergraduate senior thesis.