TROY News Center

Stephanie Burgans, administrative secretary to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Affairs, has won the University’s Vergil Parks McKinley Award.

Burgans, who has been a member of the University’s staff since 2007, received the award on June 12 during a ceremony at the Hawkins-Adams-Long Hall of Honor on the Troy Campus. Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., Chancellor, presented the award to Burgans, who was nominated by Lauri Dorrill, associate controller.

The McKinley Award is the highest honor that Troy University gives to a non-faculty staff member. It is presented quarterly to an employee who has demonstrated outstanding attitude, innovation and work ethic. The award was established by former Texaco CEO John McKinley in honor of his father, Vergil Parks McKinley, who was a Troy University professor during the early 20th century and was key to the development of the University’s athletic program. Winners of this award receive an engraved clock and a $1,000 stipend.

Since May 2011, Burgans has been assisting in TROY’s Purchasing and Asset Management and Foundation Accounting departments.

“She willingly stepped into Purchasing and Assets during a time of uncertainty in our reorganization of the department,” Dorrill said. “Saying that she took the bull by the horns would be an understatement.  Not only did she willingly do what was asked of her but she often boldly made suggestions of how to correct or enhance an area. Within weeks, she had organized stacks of documents and tackled other projects that needed to be taken care of.”

Dorrill said the qualities that make Burgans a valued employee seem to come naturally.

“She is always one of the first to arrive in the office, helpful and pleasant to others on both the phone and in person, has a strong work ethic and is dedicated not only to her job but to her family, friends and her education as well,” Dorrill said, noting that Burgans is in her senior year in pursuit of a degree in accounting. “Stephanie has been a key factor in helping make the sometimes seemingly impossible and daunting task of reorganizing a department in times of staff vacancies a possibility.”

Burgans, who was joined at the ceremony by her husband, Jason, said she was honored to receive the award.

“Like a lot of people who receive this award, I am shocked and unprepared,” the Henderson resident said. “This wouldn’t be possible without the great employees I work with. I’m just thankful to be a part of the TROY family.”

Stephanie Burgans, administrative secretary to Dr. Jim Bookout, Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Affairs, receives the University’s Vergil Parks McKinley Award on June 12 from Chancellor Jack Hawkins, Jr. and Lauri Dorrill (left), Associate Controller. Since 2011, Burgans has assisted Dorrill in the University’s Purchasing and Asset Management and Foundation Accounting departments.

The Troy University Small Business Development Center will offer a session of the Alabama Department of Revenue’s Tax Workshop for new business owners in the Troy area on June 20.

The free workshop, which will begin at 5:30 p.m., will be held at the Pike County Economic Development Corporation, located at 100 Industrial Boulevard in Troy.

Presented by the Office of Taxpayer Advocacy, the workshops will present information on a variety of state tax and business topics, including employer withholding taxes, state and local sales taxes, property taxes, business licensing requirements and Alabama’s child labor law. In addition, an overview of Alabama’s business tax electronic filing programs will be presented.

The Office of Taxpayer Advocacy has been established to provide an avenue of relief, to identify systemic problems, and to offer suggestions for improvement in procedures, according to the organization’s website. It is a way to reinforce the Alabama Department of Revenue’s commitment to equitable and fair treatment.

For more information concerning the workshop, visit the department’s website at www.revenue.alabama.gov or call 334-242-2677.

MONTGOMERY— The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society will hold its 12^th International Fitzgerald Society Conference at Troy University’s Montgomery Campus Nov. 6-10.

The Society selected TROY as the site for its biennial event because Montgomery is the birthplace of Zelda Sayre (1900-1948) and the city in which she met F. Scott Fitzgerald, then a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, in 1918.

“Montgomery is a natural site for the conference,” said Dr. Sara A. Kosiba, assistant professor of English on the Montgomery Campus and the conference program director. “It’s one of the top two or three sites in (F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's) biography, right up there with New York, Paris, and Hollywood. The Fitzgeralds are a major tourism draw in Montgomery, and with TROY’s Montgomery Campus located downtown, we’re right in the heart of the history.”

More than 70 papers and roundtables will be presented over the course of the conference, Kosiba said, and scholars from nearly a dozen countries are expected to attend.

In addition to discussions of both Fitzgeralds’ works and lives, the event will feature a bus tour of significant sites, including Oakwood Cemetery, the partial setting for the 1920 short story “The Ice Palace”; the W.A. Gayle Planetarium in historic Oak Park, which Troy University operates; and a “Belles and Jelly Beans” costume ball inspired by another popular story set in a fictionalized Montgomery, “The Jelly-Bean.” An opening reception will be held Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, and special teaching panels for high-school educators will be offered at a reduced rate on Friday, Nov. 8.

The timing of the conference coincides with renewed public interest in F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Great Gatsby.”

“It’s an amazing time in Fitzgerald Studies with the popularity of Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby',” said Dr. Kirk Curnutt, the Society vice-president and site director of the conference. “There is a lot of fresh and enthusiastic interest in Scott and Zelda right now. We hope to offer folks who’ve rediscovered 'Gatsby' through the movie an opportunity to learn more and have a taste of Roaring 20s’ fun. The great thing about the Society is that at least 50 percent of the membership is composed of non-academics. We’re a society for anybody and everybody who loves the Fitzgeralds.”

Curnutt is the chair of TROY’s English department at the Montgomery Campus.

Keynotes at the conference will include biographer Scott Donaldson, author of the 1983 Fitzgerald biography “Fool for Love,” which was recently reissued by the University of Minnesota Press; “Wall Street Journal” columnist and jazz critic Will Friedwald, who will discuss his theatrical revue “Tales of the Jazz Age: An F. Scott Fitzgerald Songbook,” which recently held its world debut at the Café Carlyle in New York; and historian Philip Greene, author of “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion,” who will discuss Fitzgerald’s connoisseurship.

Additionally, novelist Lee Smith, author of “Fair and Tender Ladies,” will read from her latest novel, “Guests on Earth,” at the conference on Friday, Nov. 8. “Guests on Earth” is set in Asheville, North Carolina, at the same hospital where Zelda died in a fire in 1948 and even includes a cameo by Zelda. The reading is free and open to the public.

The cost for the conference is $140, which includes access to all sessions and keynotes, the bus tour, and the ball. Registration information and the preliminary program are available at www.fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org.

The registration due date is Aug. 1.  For more information, contact Curnutt at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or 334-241-9701.

TROY – Five Trojans are among those vying for the title of Miss Alabama 2013, currently under way near Birmingham.

An entering freshman, an alumna and three current students – including two Miss Troy Universitys -- all hail from Troy University in the pageant.

Competing are:

• Jamie Brooks, a Master of Public Administration graduate student from Altoona, who is competing as Miss Shelby County;
• Kandice Cleckler, an entering freshman from Clanton who plans to study physical therapy, who is competing as Miss Chilton County;
• Caitlin Crowe, a senior broadcast journalism major from Tuscaloosa, who is competing as Miss Troy University;
• KeLeigh Edwards, a senior elementary education major from Smiths Station and Miss Troy University 2012, who is competing as Miss West Central Alabama; and
• Amanda Ford, a broadcast journalism graduate from Helena, who is competing as Miss Cahaba Valley.

Miss Alabama 2013 will be crowned on Saturday.

TROY – A Troy University design professor has been awarded the FATE Distinguished Service Award.

The national arts organization Foundations in Art: Theory and Education presented its award to Jerry Johnson for his strong commitment and increasing contribution to the organization, dedication to foundation teaching and administration, his capacity for innovating and a willingness to share knowledge with colleagues.

Termed an “impassioned teacher and leader in the arts,” Johnson has been the voice of FATE as its three-term Vice President for Communications.

“For seven years, Jerry has worked closely with FATE leaders and members to create consistent, relevant communications, delivery methods for which have evolved to keep pace with technology and the needs of FATE members,” said Greg Skaggs, also a TROY art professor and its new communications vice president. “His redesign of FATE communications, including the organization’s website and newsletter, has ensured leaders, members and the general public access to available research and opportunities.”

Johnson introduced the media-rich “FATE Updater” email, which currently has a circulation of 4,200, and brought social media into play for the organization, extending FATE’s community outreach.

Since his third term as a vice president, which began in 2011, Johnson has collaborated with FATE leaders and board members to transition to a new web-content management system called “MemberClicks.” The shift streamlined how educators access information, become FATE members, register for events and receive official communications.

In addition to his role at FATE, he also directs the International Center for Collaboration and Creativity, iC3, headquartered at TROY. He is also an associate with the Center for Design, Technology and Innovation and is currently developing an online graduate program in Arts and Design Management.