Celebrating Native American Heritage

NativeAmerican_260px.jpgThere’s a beautiful photograph in the president’s office at IUP, taken by retired Communications Media professor Richard Lamberski.

The photo, titled “We Have Survived,” is of a dance at the 2009 Tipton Powwow.

On November 12, it will be formally presented to IUP by Clifton Pembleton, chair of the IUP Native American Awareness Council, as a “cultural trust to the president of IUP with grateful appreciation from the IUP Native American Awareness Council.”

The presentation begins the fifth annual celebration of American Indian Heritage Month on campus, scheduled from noon to 5:00 p.m. in the Hadley Union Building Delaware Room. It’s free and open to the community and will feature a variety of performers, including Mathew White Eagle Clair, Bill Crouse, Drums of Native Sisters and Michael Jacobs.

Anyone who has had a longtime affiliation with IUP knows Clifton Pembleton and his wife, Sandy, who both recently retired from IUP, and how active they have been with the council and the work of creating more awareness about Native American culture.

Clif and Sandy are joined by several IUP faculty members on the Native American Awareness Council: Sarah Neusius, Anthropology, vice chair; Holly Boda-Sutton, Theater and Dance; James Dougherty and Melanie Hildebrandt, Sociology; Robert Millward and Monte Tidwell, Professional Studies in Education; Theresa Smith, Religious Studies; student Germaine McArdle (Oglala, Lakota Sioux); and Jennifer Soliday, Dan Mock, and Kinorea Tigris (Cherokee, Creek, Oglala, Lakota and Sioux).

IUP’s celebration of Native American Awareness Month came after Ms. Soliday, then an undergraduate, wrote to the IUP president, “I feel that it would be in the university’s best interest to demonstrate IUP’s sensitivity to American Indian culture and formally recognize this November, and every November, as American Indian Heritage Month.”

The president agreed, as did the IUP Council of Trustees. Talk about a great legacy and how one voice can truly make a difference.

Five years later, not only is the event gaining in popularity, but the NAAC is continuing its efforts to build awareness about Native American culture and to enhance and build Native American programs at IUP, including exchanges and educational events.

Sands of Compassion…Take a Peek

monkcam_260px.jpgImagine millions of grains of sand from Indiana, Pa., traveling throughout the world, with the mission of creating compassion wherever the streams, rivers, and oceans take them.

Stuart Chandler, a professor of Religious Studies and chairperson of the department, is responsible for the visit this week of ten Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery. The monks are creating a mandala of compassion in the Hadley Union Building. It’s fascinating to watch, and visitors also get a chance to build a community sand art project, using the same tools used by the monks.

And just in case you think it’s simple, or casual, think about this. The monks go through two years of training, memorizing hundreds of mandala designs, and must be chosen for this work. I wish I had a better word than “work”; it is not work in the way that we think of the term in America–it’s a way of life. Dr. Chandler told me that the head monk was born in Tibet and smuggled out of the country as a child, becoming a monk at the age of five. He never saw his family again. The monks all have a special role to play: some chant, some dance, some are the mandala creators.

I strongly encourage you to visit the program. During the mandala creation, the monks are silent unto themselves (for the seven hours per day that they work). They are in the HUB working from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today, Thursday, and Friday; from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday; and from noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday.

But if you can’t get to the HUB, you can still be part of the project. There is a live webcam capturing the work being done on the mandala. The intensity of their concentration is evident, even over the Internet. (We are showing the live webcam on this entry, too. Refresh to update the picture.)

On Monday, the mandala will be completed–just for an hour, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.–and then will be swept up, with bags of sand being distributed to visitors. The rest of the sand will be carried in a vase by the monks down Philadelphia Street and put into a stream, to find its way into the ocean.

“It’s about filling the world with compassion,” Dr. Chandler explains.

The monks travel for two years and then return to the monastery in India. They have been to many colleges and universities throughout the United States and have been at the Smithsonian. IUP hosted the monks for a mandala construction in 2003 and 2006. These appearances also were arranged by Dr. Chandler, who has been at IUP since 2000. His area of concentration is the religions of China and Japan, especially Buddhism, and he has also conducted research closer to home. His “Eastern Religions Come to Western Pennsylvania” exhibition in 2005 at the University Museum reflected his study on the evolving religious landscape of Pennsylvania. His current project is the translation of the memoirs of Oishi Junkyo, a geisha, artist, and Buddhist nun in early twentieth century Japan.

When I think of the term “renaissance man,” Dr. Chandler comes to mind. In addition to his “day job,” in summer 2006, he bicycled 2,000 miles across the northern United States and Canada with his son Evan, and he also is a musician in the Indiana-famous Dad Band.

On Saturday evening, the monks will be at the Performing Arts Center’s Fisher Auditorium as part of the Lively Arts programming. “The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Song Sacred Dance” is a mixture of traditional dances, Tibetan multiphonic chanting, and other music to channel inner spirituality and enlightenment.

A pretty amazing week at IUP.

Lack of Motivation? Maybe It’s Really Immobilization

iStock_000005688706XSmall_2.jpgIUP’s Nursing and Allied Health programs are known to be VERY challenging.

They take a very limited number of students, and students must have a high grade-point average to be accepted. There are very intensive practicums and internships in addition to classroom study.

Frankly, I’m completely okay with that. If one of these students is, someday, somewhere, going to be at the control of my ventilator or dosing out my meds, I WANT the program to be hard. I don’t want these students to be “good enough.” I want them to be excellent.

So, that said, there is a shortage of nurses, not just in Pennsylvania, but in the nation. Some of our nursing students have a great potential to be amazing nurses, but they may be struggling in a course. Wash them out? Not so fast, Susan Poorman, Nursing and Allied Health faculty member, says.

Educators need to rethink attitudes about struggling students.

“As educators, we often believe that struggling students are not really motivated. They don’t care about learning; they don’t come to the teacher for help or attend test reviews. But one thing we have learned from listening to our students’ stories is that, often, they are not unconcerned but are immobilized. They just don’t know what to do to fix the problem,” Dr. Poorman wrote in a recent issue of Nursing Education Perspectives.

“Knowing this, I do not wait for students to come to me. I try to reach out to them. I send them e-mails to make appointments for special study sessions, to help them prepare for upcoming exams. When I am able to empower students to believe that they can attack their academic problems and successfully resolve them, it is a magical and uplifting experience.”

Hoping to understand more about students who are academically at risk, Dr. Poorman and colleagues then conducted studies on the experiences of students who struggle academically and the experiences of teachers who work with these students.

They found that, while evaluation is a challenge, it’s essential when working with at-risk students.

“I have seen that sometimes, the student’s struggle is greater when we, as educators, are not effective evaluators. Unfortunately, teachers are often pressed for time. We devote most of our time to preparing for class, which leaves little time to prepare high-quality assessments of learning.”

Promising work for struggling students and, certainly, promising news for the needs of the health care industry.

Dr. Poorman is just one example of IUP’s outstanding faculty members, who truly go the extra mile to help students succeed. She is among the inaugural fellows in the National League for Nursing and owns a small educational consulting firm, STAT Nursing Consultants, Inc., which employs five master’s and doctorally prepared nurse educators. The group helps students to reduce their anxiety and enhance their thinking skills on tests. She also has served as the advisor to IUP’s chapter of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania.

Celebrating Chemistry at Carnegie Science Center

Chemistry student at workFor many years, IUP students and employees have enjoyed Wiener Wednesday in Weyandt Hall.

However, hot dog lovers might not have realized that the sales of hot dogs and related items by the IUP American Chemical Society student chapter is creating great opportunities for chemistry education.

Each year, the IUP student chapter–which was recently recognized by the national American Chemical Society as an Outstanding Student Chapter–donates $1,000 to area high school chemistry programs to promote science education and to interest students in studying chemistry. And, not only do the students and their advisor, Nathan McElroy, make the donation on site, they do “cool” chemistry experiments–complete with goggles, beakers, and foamy or “steaming” liquids.

Want to see them in action?

Seven IUP students and faculty member Justin Fair will be continuing their outreach efforts at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 22, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The program is free to those who pay admission to the center and open to all. So, if you’ve wondered what fluoride REALLY does to tooth enamel or how breakfast cereals are fortified with iron, here’s your chance to find out.

In addition to the fund-raising efforts, the students do free chemistry tutoring four nights a week for IUP students and do demonstrations throughout the community at local science fairs and recruiting events. All of these efforts have resulted in four national awards for excellence, counting this last recognition.

On Monday, the students will celebrate Mole Day. No, not the little squinty-eyed rodent, the basic measuring unit in chemistry, Avogadro’s number (6.02 x 1023), with a bake sale at Weyandt Hall. Not to ruin the surprise, but I hear there will be cupcakes with atomic symbols. I won’t have a clue about the symbols, but a cupcake with icing can NEVER be wrong.

Dr. McElroy has an unusual understanding of the IUP Department of Chemistry–he is a very proud IUP Chemistry graduate!

But, he gives all the credit for the chapter’s success to the students.

“The Outstanding Chapter Award by the national ACS is a great honor for the club. I couldn’t be more proud of these students and of the exceptional work that they do for the department, the university, and the local community.”

Borrowed Babies, Revisited

Home Economics House 1953.jpgI was delighted to receive this photo from Theresa McDevitt, a Libraries faculty member, a few weeks ago. She sent it as a homecoming greeting, but she also knows that in 1995 I wrote a story for IUP Magazine about the Home Management House.

The story was called “Borrowed Babies,” and you can read it, thanks to an effort by the Libraries’  Special Collections and Archives Department. Harrison Wick and colleagues have made a decent effort to scan IUP publications of the past and make them accessible through Archive.org.

But, you probably chose to open this post because of its title, so let me explain. From the early 1910s to the 1960s, Home Economics majors at IUP had a semester-long immersion experience in Home Management House, which was located on a street that no long exists near Cogswell Hall. In addition to keeping the house in operation in the spirit of any modern-day domestic engineer, the students also cared for a baby lent to them by a nearby orphanage. Hence, the reference in the photo to Rodger–the baby who resided in Home Management House in fall, 1953 (Rodger says, “It’s time for a change. Beat California”). After the story ran in the magazine, we received many letters to the editor from alumnae who had nothing but wonderful things to say about the experience, who wondered what had happened to the babies they cared for, and who wanted to share their memories with others. Still, isn’t it difficult to believe?

Fast forward to 2011, and we all know things are quite different today. We no longer have a Home Economics Education major, per se, but instead several majors entailing Family and Child Studies and Family and Consumer Sciences Education, both housed in the Human Development and Environmental Studies Department. All you have to do is take a look at that website to know we focus on modern issues, employ modern techniques, and that we’re a long way from Home Management House.

If You Can’t Think of Something to Say, Just Offer Support

I like Facebook.

I enjoy seeing photos of my friends and my daughter away at college. And like it or not, Facebook has become a valuable tool for communications professionals. We use it here at IUP, my Quota club uses it, and it’s helpful.

I like checking my personal page, and I try VERY hard not to post things of the “Who cares?” variety. So, because my life is fairly uneventful, I don’t post all that often.

But I have wondered what to do when I see those posts that present information reflecting a lot of personal emotion: Passing of a parent. A fire. Loss of a job. Worry over the stock market and a 401K plunge postponing retirement FOREVER (oh wait–that’s me). Should I comment? What should I say?

Krys KaniastyIUP Psychology professor Krys Kaniasty to the rescue.

Even if you don’t know what to say, say something simple and direct, he advises.

And he should know.

Dr. Kaniasty has done extensive study on social support after natural disasters and trauma.

In fact, he was honored by the Stress and Anxiety Research Society with the Lifetime Career Award for his work. And, he just returned from the Australian Psychological Society Annual Conference in Canberra, where he was an invited keynote presenter on the topic of support for victims of natural disasters.

Earlier this year, he was asked by web editors from Gizmodo to offer advice on how people should respond to comments on social media to people affected by disasters–most recently, the Japanese tsunami.

For example, let’s say a Facebook friend and trauma survivor posts feelings that are of concern

“Don’t stay silent,” Kaniasty recommends in a posting titled “An Etiquette Guide to Tsunamis and Other Disasters.”

“Send a private message that says something to the effect of, ‘I just read your post. If you need to talk, I’m here for you.’ Make sure to include a phone number–sometimes people need to talk.”

Dr. Kaniasty is one of my favorite Psychology professors. He’s very active in his field, respected internationally for his work, and recently co-authored a review titled “Weighing the Costs of Disaster: Consequences, Risks, and Resilience in Individuals, Families, and Communities” in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

He’s a native of Poland, and is the author of a book about the 1997 Polish flood. (That publication is worthy of several blog entries alone. Check it out on his website.)

In terms of offering support, Dr. Kaniasty says in the posting that “you don’t have to be a talented clinician to be helpful. Most people aren’t looking for you to provide a solution; they’re looking for someone to listen.”

Good advice, both for Facebook and life.

The Golden Rule in the Workplace? Really?

Jan Wachter teaching graduate safety sciences classOkay, back again, talking about one of my favorite professors and programs.

Jan Watcher, associate professor of Safety Sciences, who is currently researching how management needs to engage workers if they want them to follow safety guidelines, is a busy guy.

In addition to this work, a full load of classes, and advising students, one of his articles was selected for one of the most prestigious national safety journals, Professional Safety. His article is titled “Ethics–the Absurd Yet Preferred Approach to Safety Management.”

Any academic article that has the word “absurd” in it captures my attention.

As I’ve noted in a previous post, Dr. Watcher is a very articulate, well-rounded guy, who puts doing the right thing first. So I guess I’m not surprised by his topic. He is trying to tell management that yes, “the Golden Rule” (you know, we learned it in Sunday school, “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You” ) can be used as the basis for developing and implementing safety programs in the workplace without negatively affecting the bottom line.

 But Dr. Watcher goes a step further. He puts this responsibility on the safety professional. “Safety professionals need to have the moral courage to embrace ethical, not just regulatory, standards,” he says.

Let’s face it. Big companies are not always known for caring about the “little guy,” and sometimes, Dr. Watcher says, unethical managers try to enlist safety professionals as advocates for cutting corners when it comes to safety. If this happens, he says, safety professionals need to stand their ground and show their bosses how safety programs based on the more ethical basis of doing the right thing is a better and sustaining basis for managing safety programs in the long run.

I really liked this particular idea from the article: Laws and regulations are all about what people CAN’T  do, but ethics are about what people (and companies) SHOULD do.

Or, more simply put, ethics are about doing the right thing.

Dr. Wachter supports a “safety management systems approach” in the workplace: that is, recognizing the unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, and accidents are all symptoms of problems in the organizational management system. Safety should not be a “sunk cost,” but an integral function of doing business, just like quality.

But why would management adopt this approach, especially in light of challenging economic times?

“Perhaps the greatest economic reason to support an ethics-based approach to safety management within a capitalistic system is that prosperity generates an environment where continuing improvement and reduced risk are affordable,” Dr. Wachter says.

Pretty smart thinking.

But Dr. Watcher is a pretty smart guy. Here’s his professional training: a bachelor’s degree in biology, master’s degree in environmental health, Master of Business Administration, a doctoral degree in hygiene from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and a Master of Applied Theology from Wheeling Jesuit University. Before his academic career, he was employed by Fortune 100 companies and the federal government as an environmental safety and health administrator and researcher. His safety science accreditations include certified safety professional, certified industrial hygienist, certified hazardous materials manager, certified quality engineer, and certified reliability engineer.

I really like the idea of a Dr. Jan Wachter training the next generation of safety professionals. I feel a lot safer already!

Welcome, Citizens!

I always enjoy the annual International Education Week events and presentations, especially the panel of students talking about how study abroad has made an impact on their lives. It’s very gratifying to hear from IUP students–many from tiny little towns here in Pennsylvania–who have had entire new worlds opened up to them due to study abroad opportunities.

But this year, we will be hosting something REALLY special and different.

On Friday, October 14, at 11:00 a.m. at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex’s Toretti Auditorium, 102 people from forty different countries will officially begin their lives as American citizens.

Last month, Michele Petrucci, director of IUP’s Office of International Education, was contacted by the Pittsburgh field office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“Would IUP be interested in hosting a naturalization ceremony?” they asked. “We are thinking about Friday, October 14,” (which just happened to be the final day of International Education Week. So perfect).

Dr. Petrucci checked with university leadership, and the answer was an enthusiastic “yes!” 

In fact, David Werner, IUP’s interim president, agreed to welcome the candidates and offer remarks during the ceremony.

This particular ceremony will also have a very special meaning to one of our own. Pooja Rishi, originally from Madras, India, and a faculty member in the IUP Department of Political Science, will be naturalized Friday. She also will take part in the ceremony as a candidate speaker.

“It’s a sense of permanency,” she said of her upcoming citizenship. She and her husband are the parents of a young son, and she said that she also wanted to be a citizen for family reasons. “I’m here, in this community, raising my child. I have a stake in this community, and being a citizen is important to me.”

Becoming a citizen is not as easy as it seems. You cannot become a citizen simply by marrying an American citizen (I had that one wrong), and it takes years to complete the process. For Dr. Rishi, it took four years from the beginning of the process until the ceremony tomorrow, and she considers herself “very, very lucky” to have completed the process that quickly.

I’ve not been to a naturalization ceremony before–only seen them on television shows and in movies. I know how proud I am of my citizenship, which I way too often take for granted, so I can only imagine what it means to internationals who have worked hard to complete paperwork and pass the citizenship exams. (I understand that a lot of “born here in America” Americans would have some trouble passing that exam!)

The ceremony is open to the public and to media. If you have the time, come join us in welcoming some of American’s newest citizens. What a great end to IUP’s International Education Week.

Lost in Translation

IUP Department of Foreign Languages Spanish associate professor Marjorie Zambrano-Paff presented a paper titled “Mediated Humor in the Legal Setting: The Construction of New Identities,” at the 2011 International Society for Language Studies conference.

Marjorie Zambrano-PaffOkay, kind of an esoteric title. But a lot of times, the actual content of these academic papers is really intriguing and thought-provoking. When I read more on the Spanish Department’s website, I realized that her research and conclusions needed to be told.

My translation of her work? Well-credentialed Spanish professor + study of the fairness of immigration hearings = media interest. Especially in those states that are dealing with so many of those issues (Texas, Arizona, California).

I contacted her for a copy of the paper. Long story short, I sent out information to media with my own title (a little more casual and less academic): “Humor in Immigration Courtroom Not So Funny to Defendants.”

Here’s the general idea of what she found–my words, not hers–when judges try to be funny, even with good intentions of relaxing the defendant, it doesn’t really translate. I get that. I’m reading a book by Kelly McDonald, a marketing expert in Texas, who keeps stressing that you can’t just word-for-word translate colloquialisms from one language to another. For example, “Got Milk?” in English does not mean the same thing as “Got Milk?” in Spanish. I don’t remember the Spanish words for it, but in Spanish, this phrase means, “Are you a nursing mother?” Yikes.

Not long after I sent out the information on her research, a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times e-mailed me, asking for more from Dr. Zambrano-Paff. Not sure when the story will run, but when it does, it means that 317,274 subscribers will know how interesting IUP faculty are!

Being an Ally Can Be a Lifesaver

GLBT History MonthTomorrow, we celebrate National Coming Out Day. It’s part of a national observance in October, which is National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Month. It’s been observed in America since 1994.

Tonight, the IUP Six O’Clock Series will host a presentation by Faisal Alam.”Hidden Voices: The Lives of LGBT Muslims,” which will be offered in the Hadley Union Building Ohio Room and is cosponsored by IUP’s GLBT Commission, the Office of International Education, Pride Alliance, and the Department of Religious Studies. This program is designed to highlight the struggles and challenges facing sexual and gender minorities within the Muslim world. Tonight’s program is also part of IUP’s celebration of International Education Week, October 10-14.

IUP is vocal in its support and acceptance of GLBT lifestyles. We have joined our colleages across the nation to encourage acceptance of GLBT students at colleges, and we all mourn for the families of those students who have suffered and who have lost their lives as a result of harassment and bullying.

IUP has several groups that address GLBT issues. Recently, I asked Todd Cogar, chair of the GLBT Commission at IUP, to offer information for parents whose children are members of the GLBT community as a release for media to use in back-to-school publications. IUP’s GLBT Commission is an advisory group to the Office of the President that works to improve the climate for diversity within IUP.

“One of the most important things parents and families can do for their students–and other family members–is to never assume that anyone is heterosexual,” he said.

Cogar is an assistant director in the Center for Student Life and Office of Student Conduct and an advisor to Pride Alliance, the LGBT student group at IUP.

“One doesn’t have to agree with those who identify as LGBT, but it is so important for individuals who do identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning, to hear that they are supported by their loved ones. Parents and families can impact harassment and bullying in simple ways by addressing inappropriate jokes, by supporting students when incidents occur, and by helping students appropriately address bullying and harassment.

“Students are always looking for those individuals who identify with the community as allies. An ally is someone who is not LGBT, but who is a supportive individual who accepts the person. Being an ally can be a life-saving role for people in the LGBT community. Allies can work with the community for equal rights and fair treatment; they can assist in the coming-out process, and are huge voices of acceptance and respect.”

Cogar also advised students to “get involved” at their college.

“College students are always encouraged to get involved in campus life. Students who are involved on campus gain great leadership skills, make the most of their college experience, meet new friends, and often do better academically,” he said.

For LGBT students at IUP, for example, there is Pride Alliance, a student organization that has as its goals fostering a safe and supportive academic and social environment for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and ally community of IUP.

IUP also has an active Safe Zone program. This group strives to improve the campus climate for LGBT individuals by providing a visible sign on campus to indicate a safe place for students to go for support. The program provides training to members of the IUP community so that members are knowledgeable and sensitive to LGBT issues. Members pledge to challenge homophobic and heterosexist comments or behaviors in an educational and informative manner.

As part of efforts to raise awareness of issues, last October, the IUP GLBT Commission sponsored an “Anti-Bullying, Anti-Homophobia Vigil of Remembrance” in the Oak Grove on campus, drawing more than two hundred people.

In addition, for the past two years, IUP students, staff, and faculty have participated in the “Only Love” photography awareness program. This event was created by R.C. Stabile, a graduate student in the Student Affairs in Higher Education program.

Here’s what Stabile says on the “Only Love” website: “There is so much hate spread through bullying, bashing, and violence. … We, as college students, the future of America, believe that everyone deserves a chance to love and be loved.”

Hard to argue with a message promoting acceptance and love.