The girls and boys of winter

We've added a new web site to our list of links, RMU Centre Ice, which is devoted to Colonials hockey. Which reminds us...WTAE-TV's Guy Junker had great things to say about the Colonials women's hockey team during his sportscast last night from Tampa. (Site of Super Bowl XLIII.) After a profile of WTAE's high school student athlete of the week -- a female goalie on a boy's hockey team -- Junker put in a plug for the Colonials should the young lady decide to pursue her dream of playing at the collegiate level.

Thanks, Guy. Tell Stan we said hi.

I've got a feeling, Colonials going to the Super Bowl

Jim Duzyk, our director of sports information, runs down RMU's connections to the Super Bowl, here. One more is worth noting: Pat Rooney, wife of Steelers owner Dan Rooney, is a member of the RMU Board of Trustees and one of our most loyal and generous supporters.

Around the horn

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Highlands High School quarterback Jeff Sinclair is coming to RMU because of our strengths in nursing. That will please the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, which is looking for a few good men. (Ladies welcome too.) Highlands coach Sam Albert says some nice things about us, and we couldn't more grateful.

Looking elsewhere, RMU women's basketball standout Monet Johnson finds herself mentioned in this New York Times article, while club hockey coach Jason Evans scores his 100th victory.

Finally, A. J. Grant, head of the Department of English Studies and Communication Skills, wants to make sure we get credit where credit is due. (Link; last item.)

That's all. Stay warm.

Grading the graders

There's been a lot of handwringing in higher education over the past year regarding assessments and accountability, as this article in Inside Higher Ed demonstrates. For the record, RMU thinks accountability is a good thing. For President Greg Dell'Omo's thoughts on the matter, check out this op-ed that ran last year in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette online. Then visit this web site, where we practice what we preach.

Once a Colonial, always a Colonial

First of all, we hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. It is good to be back.

Second, for those of you who are RMU alumni, we wanted to let you know that starting this semester, the RMU Libraries will begin offering alumni online access to the ProQuest database service. Previously available only to students, ProQuest includes the full text of more than 6,000 magazines, journals and newspapers. Users can browse or search The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, PC Magazine, Consumer Reports and many specialized journals in nursing, education, and many other fields.

"We’re very happy to offer our most popular database to alumni," said librarian Jackie Corinth.

For more information, call the reference desk at (412) 397-3272.