(Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner supervised the transition from student EagleMail to EagleConnect in spring 2009. She’s also a nationally recognized composer of electroacoustic music and holds a brown belt designation in karate.)

What is your title and department at UNT?
My position is the assistant director of CITC Academic Computing and User Services. My degrees are a doctor of musical arts and a master’s of music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in music from Trinity University, San Antonio. I am currently the vice president of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and I just had a piece released on compact disc.

What is new about EagleConnect?
EagleConnect is not just e-mail; it is texting and collaborative learning spaces and calendaring. Also, students can fix it up on their cell phones quite easily. I think that UNT areas should have a much greater presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but I also realize that there may be some security and compliance issues that need to be dealt with first before that is a big possibility.

What are trends in your field?
In my job field, especially the part that involves the students, there is a big emphasis on green computing and computer energy management. Much more work is being done on providing better study and collaborative learning environments for students including more informal computing work areas (couches, wireless connectivity, easy-to-move tables and whiteboards for project work) rather than the more formal lab spaces. Another aspect of my job, research computing, has a heavy emphasis on high-performance computing (computer clusters, grid computing) and data visualization.
In my research area, there is currently emphasis on the preservation of digital art and music objects, including preserving old electronic music - tape pieces, pieces done on old computers like the Amiga - and also web-based pieces, and collecting interviews with pioneers in the field of electronic and computer music.

(Meet Scrappy the Eagle at the 2009 Homecoming Picnic and Pep Rally, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 13 on Library Mall, or during Homecoming weekend Oct. 16-17. He’ll welcome alumni, parents, friends and students to the parade, celebratory events and the football game. Find a schedule of Homecoming activities.)

How long have you been Scrappy?
I’ve been Scrappy all my life, but I became the mascot for the University of North Texas in 1971. I took a sabbatical from 1983-1995 to collect my thoughts, then came back to be better than ever. 

What is Scrappy’s role?
My job at sports events is to promote spirit, excitement, enthusiasm and good sportsmanship to the students and fans of the Mean Green Nation. I try to make them excited to be there before the team sets foot on the field or court, so that when the team appears, the players are in awe of how excited the fans are to see them perform to the best of their ability.

Have you met interesting people and/or celebrities?
I have visited with all the great UNT alumni, fans and opponents, but my favorite of all time would of course be our very own “Mean” Joe Greene. 

What’s the best experience Scrappy has had?
I believe being a visible representative of the university experience for all the students would be at the top of my list. The many bowl games, conference tournaments, conference games, the NCAA tournament with basketball, watching all our sports teams excel … helping get to a point where UNT is a household name is the best experience.

Is Scrappy waterproof?
Well, not waterproof considering I’m a bird, but I am water-resistant, and I fight through the rain for the love of the game.

How does Scrappy keep cool, especially at early-season football games?
It’s a secret of the pros. But I will say that this eagle stays hydrated before, during and after all activities. And I eat a lot of fish.

How can people meet you?
I would love for everyone to come join me at Homecoming and at Mean Green sporting events. But being a mascot eagle can be a little boring when we don’t have games. I love attending birthday parties, corporate events and other activities that I can make exciting and enjoyable. If you’d like to request that I attend your event, just e-mail my good friend Sarah (sarah.mccance@unt.edu). 

 (Photos by Jonathan Reynolds)

Amanda Breaz, box office and promotions manager for the Department of Dance and Theatre, is a UNT graduate who hopes to one day direct children’s theatre. The department’s current production is Moliere’s comedy about love, hypocrisy and affluence,The Misanthrope, on stage in the University Theater at 8 p.m. Oct. 8-10 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 11.


What is your title and department?
I am in the box office and promotions manager in the Department of Dance and Theatre.

How long have you worked at UNT?
I have worked at UNT for two years, but I also am an alumni of UNT. I graduated May of 2006.

What is your educational background and past experiences?
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theatre and in psychology. I hold an associate of arts degree in drama from Alvin Community College. I have worked as a professional stage manager for Keith & Margo’s Murder Mysteries of Texas, as a freelance director and as a director for McKinney Repertory Theatre.

How did you become interested in theatre?
I had always been a very artsy kid by nature. I excelled in art, music, reading and writing. I had always had an interest in the arts. I wanted to be a writer, a comic book artist, a chef, a symphony conductor and a teacher when I was younger. I always enjoyed all forms of art and personal expression. I constantly was reinventing myself and I think theatre was the perfect avenue for me to enjoy and continue exploring all of my artistic gifts. I was able to build and paint sets, sing and dance in musicals, read tons of plays and theatre literature, use my imagination to direct, create interest and passion for all types of art including theatre by teaching youth in schools and through personal interaction while in or working on plays.

Tamara Taylor teaches English to international students. Away from the classroom, she and her husband raise award-winning goats and dogs. One of their Texas-bred Turkish Kangal shepherd dogs, Hedi, below, was sent to the Africa-based Cheetah Conservation Fund to help protect the endangered cats.

• Learn about Hedi and her trip to Namibia.
• Find an ABC News report about Hedi and the Cheetah Conservation Fund. 
 
What is your job at UNT?
Last year was my 25th year of teaching English as a Second Language, ESL, at the Intensive English Language Institute, or IELI. I began teaching English as a second language in 1976, before most universities offered degrees or certification in that field.

How do you choose ESL?
My bachelor’s degree is in English and French from Dominican College in Houston (now defunct), and I have ESL certification from The English Language Centre in London. While working on a master’s degree at Texas Woman’s University, I taught freshman composition and became enthralled with the process and teaching of writing, thanks to one of those once-in-a-lifetime, talented professors. My goal is to make writing in English more logical and easier for my international students.

What do you like about working at the university?
The university setting moves ESL instruction to a new level. Our students are here for academic English and preparation for the related skills they will need in a university. The IELI has a clearly defined mission to teach academic English and to provide needed services to our international students. The result is an environment where the creative and qualified personnel at IELI and UNT-International work to provide the very best education for our university-bound international students, who enjoy the status of being recognized as UNT students with access to libraries, dormitories, activities – a real United States university experience.

How did you learn about Kangal dogs?
In the early1980s, my husband Mike and I bought a small farm and soon had chickens, rabbits, goats – and predatory coyotes and neighbors’dogs. We needed protection for our animals while we were at work all day. A veterinarian friend recommended a Turkish native dog breed, Akbash or Kangal. When my Turkish students at IELI heard I had a real Akbas Çoban kopek (Akbash shepherd dog), they came to visit with other Turkish friends, graduates of UNT. Soon we were friends with Turkish people in the area, and one of them asked if we would accept our first Kangal dog.

Karen Weiller-Abels is chair of the Faculty Senate for 2009-10. She is a marathon runner and enjoys free time with her family.

What is your title?
Associate professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Kinesiology program.

How long have you been at UNT?
18 years.

What is your academic background?
I have a doctorate in physical education, and have been on faculty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I also have taught fourth grade and elementary physical education for Carrollton and Farmers Branch ISDs, as well as served as a teacher evaluator. I am a Research Fellow in the Research Consortium of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, and a former Southern District representative on the Council of Physical Education for Children.

I am the co-author of an upcoming text to be published by Human Kinetics Publishing Company in April 2010. The text is Movement education: Foundation for active lifestyles. I am also the co-developer of products to be produced by Sportime, a physical education equipment company. These products accompany our text and are related to movement education.

How long have you been a member of the Senate?
This is my second rotation as a senate member. I previously served as senate secretary.

What is the purpose of the Senate?
The Faculty Senate is an opportunity for all faculty across the university to be represented by their peers in an arena that promotes discussion of topics and issues that are pertinent to faculty. The senate is also an opportunity for faculty and administration to work in an atmosphere of collaboration in the best interests of UNT as a student-centered research institution.

James Mueller, associate professor of journalism, has written two books about presidential candidates, presidents and their relationship with the media. He joined the journalism faculty at UNT in 2000, after serving as an assistant professor for two years at Pittsburg State University, Kansas.

Your most recent book was about Bill and Hillary Clinton; what inspired you to write it?
It was a follow-up to my book about former President George W. Bush and the press. While I was researching Bush’s relationship with the press, I had done a fair amount of reading about Bill Clinton in order to compare his administration with Bush’s. In early 2007, it looked like Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next Democratic presidential nominee and had a pretty good chance of winning the general election. That situation made a book about the Clintons’ relationship with the press very interesting. (Tag Teaming the Press: How Bill and Hillary Clinton Work Together to Handle the Media, was published in June 2008.) 

Was there really a media bias toward President Barack Obama during the campaign?
It is clear from both anecdotal evidence and research, that the mainstream press favored Obama in the primary and general election campaigns. Mark Halperin, a highly respected political journalist for Time, compared New York Times’ profiles of Michelle Obama, which was adoring, to its “vicious” one of Cindy McCain, to support his view that the bias was “extreme” toward Obama. The Washington Post’s own analysis of its coverage found that it had tilted toward Obama. Even Saturday Night Live satirized the bias with a skit showing Obama receiving softball questions from the press. Of course the election is quite recent, and professionals and scholars will be studying it for a long time, especially to examine the question of bias. But I am confident most research will show the press was biased toward Obama. The more interesting question is whether the bias had any impact on the election.

Eugene Frier, Residence Life Coordinator for Academic Initiatives and Assessment for the Department of Housing and Residence Life, is celebrating his 10th year at UNT. His favorite campus event is Sunday Fun Day, when residence halls open and the campus comes to life. Volunteer to help with this year's mass move in Aug. 23.

What is your title and department?
I coordinate the Residents Engaged in Academic Living (REAL) Communities program, which is our residentially based learning communities program, as well as assist with the Faculty in Residence Program, where we house a faculty member in the residence halls to assist with our resident’s academic experience as well as try to encourage casual interactions between students and faculty. I handle assessment for Business Services and Housing, serve as a part of the mid level staff for housing and assist with any academic efforts to help our residence hall students succeed at UNT.

How long have you worked at UNT?
I started working at UNT my freshman year as a referee for Intramural Sports in 1999, moved on to housing the next year as a peer advisor and have been working for Housing ever since.

What is your educational background and past experiences?
I was born and spent my entire pre-college life on a tiny Air Force base in England, RAF Lakenheath. After that, I came to UNT to pursue an education degree, but that changed after I took my first sociology class and I changed my major.

What housing events or traditions do you look forward to?
Sunday Fun Day, hands down. I do not like how quiet our campus gets over the summer and on Sunday Fun Day, the residence halls are anything but quiet. Having a few small groups of students living in the halls the week leading up to Sunday Fun Day to having 60 percent of our 6,000 residents back on campus is quite the shift. I also love how so much of the campus community bands together to help pull this off. It really shows a lot to me about what our students mean to our campus, seeing all the people out and about lending a hand to make it happen.

Bobbie Tassinari, associate director of Facilities Business Services, recently completed requirements for the APPA (Association of Physical Plant Administrators) Educational Facilities Professional Credentialing Program. Tassinari says that the program will aid in better understanding and working with other areas of the Facilities program.

What is your title and position at UNT?
I am the associate director of Facilities Business Services. I manage the budget and financial aspect of the organization, while supervising nine departments: compliance, recycling, moving, automotive, work control, personnel/payroll, purchasing, information systems, and stores.

How long have you worked at UNT?
I have worked with UNT since 2006.

How did you get involved with APPA?
I got involved because Charles Jackson, executive director for Facilities, considers UNT’s involvement in APPA to be an excellent developmental tool for staff and provides a good resource for networking within the industry.

What were the requirements for the credential?
It varies depending upon the individual’s education level and time in grade qualifications. Since I hold a master’s degree, I simply needed to either study independently or attend the Association of Physical Plant Administrators Institute. The institute provides education through four component training sessions: energy and utilities, maintenance and operations, planning, design and construction, and general administration and management.

How long did it take to earn the credential? 
All in all, it took me about two years.

How will the credential affect your work at UNT?
The EFP provides Facilities professionals with four core competency areas of training. Though most of us are experts in our own areas, Facilities is broad enough of a division that the institute and EFP exam aid in developing competencies and understanding of other divisional areas.

Geoffrey Wawro, holds the Major General Olinto Mark Barsanti Chair in Military History and is director of the Military History Center. He has opinions about United States military efforts in the Middle East, spends time with his two sons and roots for the New England Patriots.

What is your title and department?
Major General Olinto Mark Barsanti Chair in Military History and director of the Military History Center.

How long have you worked at UNT?
Since Fall 2005.

What is your educational background and past experiences?
I received my master of arts, master of philosophy and doctorate in modern European history at Yale University. I earned my bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Brown University. I was a Fulbright Scholar in Austria from 1989-91, and was visiting professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College from 1996-98. Before joining the Naval War College's Center for Naval Warfare Studies in 2000, I was assistant and associate professor of history at Oakland University in Michigan. I am the author of four books, and speak German, French, Spanish and Italian. I have hosted many History Channel programs including Hardcover History, History's Business, History versus Hollywood, Global View, History in Focus and Hard Target. Photo, Wawro on the set of the History Channel.

What are your thoughts on President Obama’s timetable for leaving Iraq in 2010 or 2011?
It’s time to leave Iraq. It can only be hoped that the Iraqis can forge a cohesive state in the absence of Saddam and his sons.

What are your thoughts on sending more troops to Afghanistan?
It’s an understandable impulse, but hard to see what the desired end state is. It appears that we have given up on Bush’s naïve “Freedom Agenda,” but it seems equally naïve to negotiate with the Taliban. Obama is not naïve, so he must be counting on splitting the Taliban and its allies apart. He is also obviously trying to talk the Pakistanis into closer cooperation with us. Even if he succeeds, Pakistan will remain a simmering volcano and Afghanistan will continue as a terrorist haven with high corruption, smuggling and drug running. We should focus on locating and killing terrorists, and drying up their funds and networks. Bush’s credulous nation building has been an almighty flop that has weakened our military and driven us deeper into debt.