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Robison's Summer Business Course Shows Students the "Real World" at Sonoma County Companies

Don Chigazola, Director of Operations at Medtronic Vascular in Santa Rosa, discusses the product development cycle with SSU students visiting Medtronic as part of a Business 316: Production Operations Management in the Real World.

Jim Robison, lecturer for Business Administration, has developed a summer course for twenty-five SSU students to learn about manufacturing processes, inventory management, supply chains, and distribution systems in the real world, by attending summer classes at Agilent Technology, Medtronic Vascular, Parker Compumotor, and other Sonoma County companies. His experimental summer school version of the course, offered through the School of Extended Education, meets four hours a day at host companies, with three hours of lecture and discussion followed by a tour of the host company or another nearby company. By the end of the four-week course, the students will have visited more than a dozen local companies. “Our on-location tour format is exactly what we need in all classes. “It's a great way to be able to relate the topics that we cover in class to the real world, ” says student Ada Fernandez.

Flores Publishes Two Versions of Picture Book "Thrownology"

Matt Flores, Academic Records Specialist for Student Records, has published two versions of his photo book "Thrownology." Flores defines the term "thrownology" as photographing thrown objects in mid-flight, and through this method he photographically depicts idioms and puns -- tossing your cookies, losing your marbles, time flies, etc. The project was inspired by Philippe Halsman's "jumpology" series. Thrownology is available at blurb.com.

Professor Emeritus Rosen Writes of 1956-1973, Including Early SSU Stories and Photos

Gerald "Jerry" Rosen, professor emeritus of English, has recently published his seventh book, "Cold Eye, Warm Heart- A Novelist's Search for Meaning," a non-fiction, comic, political, and philosophical memoir and personal history of the years 1956-1973. Noted critic Jerome Klinkowitz remarks, "This is the best book about the American cultural transformation of the second half of the Twentieth Century that has ever been written."

The book is an American success story that turns into a counter-cultural and spiritual journey, challenging the fundamental, underlying assumptions of American culture. It begins in The Bronx, moves to Greenwich Village, and then to a description of campus life in the early days of Sonoma State. Rosen says in the book, "Instead of a town square, Cotati had a town circle. Nothing square could exist in Cotati." The book contains 31 pages of photos, and Rosen adds to members of the campus community, "Some of you are in it."

Rosen's books have been recommended by the NY Times and have been the subject of four European university dissertations. He has spoken about them at leading universities in the United States and Europe. The book is available in paperback Amazon.

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