Being an Ally Can Be a Lifesaver

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Tomorrow, 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.

Students Generally Accepting of Muslims, but Knowledgeable? Not So Much

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

I grew up in Indiana. I loved my childhood, and I love my hometown then and now, but I certainly realize that it is a pretty homogeneous community. I believe that Indiana does offer more diversity (in the interest of full disclosure, this is NOT scientifically or statistically proven) over other towns of its size because of places like IUP and Indiana Regional Medical Center, which tend to draw individuals from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

I also appreciate that the university truly values diversity and has a dynamic and active Office of International Education that does extensive outreach throughout the year, including International Education Week (October 10-14 this year). I’ll be talking more about the week, which includes a naturalization ceremony, a first for IUP, in a future blog.

But with diversity comes challenges. The tragedy of September 11, 2001, changed the way that we look at the world (that’s not news to anyone) and placed the Islamic culture and religion in the spotlight in ways that it had never been before.

That’s why I felt that the results of a study by Parveen Ali, an assistant professor in IUP’s Department of Developmental Studies, on “Perception of Islam and Muslims among College Students” would be both interesting and important to reporters.

The good news? Dr. Ali found that most students have an overall satisfactory attitude toward Muslims and Islam.

The not so good news? Most students have a misperception about where the majority of Muslims live, and some still associate Muslim with “terrorist.”

Any guesses about what was top-of-mind for students when they were asked for reactions to the word “Muslim”?

Forty-four percent responded with “normal people.” Twenty-one percent responded with “terrorist”; forty-four percent with “Arabs.” (They could choose more than one answer.)

And clearly, IUP students need to bone up on their geography. Eighty-four percent of surveyed students believed that the region where most Muslims lived is the Middle East.

Wrong answer.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of all of the world’s countries (15.6 percent), and Asia and the Pacific have 61.9 percent of the Muslim population, compared to 20.1 percent in the Middle East.

There is an increasing presence of Muslims on U.S. college campuses. That’s just a fact, Dr. Ali says.

That said, what’s the take away from this study?

“It is crucial to create awareness about Islam in college campuses in order to prevent discrimination, intolerance, false myths, and prejudice toward its believers.”

Well said.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear about Greek Life

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

There are certain words that come to mind when you say “fraternity” or “sorority.”

You know them. I know them.

Parties. Wild behavior. Animal House.

However, if you’re not aware of this by now, I need to tell you this: you really CAN’T believe all that you see on television and the movies about university students.

Let me suggest some other words, and these are ones that I can absolutely prove to be fact about IUP’s Greek organizations:

Community service
National philanthrophy
Networking
Study hours
Academic standards
And this past week, pomps and pickup–garbage pickup, that is

While you were on your way home to dry out after this year’s wonderful (albeit wet!) Homecoming parade, after enjoying the amazing floats built by members of IUP’s fraternities and sororities, some three hundred fraternity and sorority members were busy VOLUNTEERING to clean up the Indiana Borough streets. Not quite the Homecoming “party” most expect of our Greeks.

Betsy Sarneso, assistant director for Student Life, oversees Greek life on campus. It’s a big job–there are about eight hundred students at IUP in one of thirty social sororities or fraternities. She coordinated the cleanup, among many, many other projects and programs.

“Every Greek organization is required to do service or contribute to a philanthropy, local or national, and sometimes they do both,” she explained. The Homecoming cleanup is just an extra.

Often, these students get excited about projects and move forward to DO THEM without notifying her office, so we don’t always get the word out. I can’t really fault them for that–the commitment to a good cause isn’t, for them, about getting credit or being in the newspaper. That’s kind of a refreshing thing in a world where it’s too often about people doing things for the recognition.

For example, we just learned of a project happening today and Wednesday–the annual “Rocking the Grove” fund-raising event, sponsored by the Panhellenic Association. Members of the Greek community will be in rocking chairs in the Oak Grove today from 4:30 to 11:30 p.m. and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday. Funds raised go to the Alice Paul House, a shelter for survivors of domestic violence and their children here in Indiana County.

Then, on Friday and Saturday of this week, sororities and fraternities will be doing a food drive at the Fourth Street Bi-Lo for the Indiana County Community Kitchen. This event, done in conjunction with the Office of Service Learning, will involve students from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. both days.

The Community Kitchen, the recent beneficiary of a special fund-raising event sponsored by the Bridge Corps, works to fight hunger in Indiana County. Since its creation in 1994, the Community Kitchen has served more than 150,000 meals. They get no government or state funding–it all comes from donations.

For some fraternities and sororities, this is a “been there, done that” kind of thing, as they’ve already done food drives for the community. We just don’t always hear about it.

In addition to rocking, members of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority are part of a breast cancer awareness event, Bras for a Cause, organized by the Indiana Business and Professional Women’s Club. (This project I know about…I was a celebrity bartender last year, complete with pink sweater, scarf, and hair!) The decorated bras are on display in front of Stapleton Library until tomorrow, so come out and vote for your favorite (that’s how the project raises money). All proceeds go to Birdie’s Closet at Indiana Regional Medical Center, a place for women diagnosed with cancer.

And those are things being done just THIS WEEK by our fraternity and sororities THAT WE KNOW ABOUT. I am certain there are many more things that we’ll never hear about, and that will never make the news.

However, the recipients of the funds raised or service offered will know.

Maybe that’s all that matters.

A Million Reasons to Thank an IUP Student

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

I don’t normally like to generalize about IUP students, because the more students I meet, the more I realize that they are very different from one another.

However, I don’t think that I’m too off the mark when I suggest that 98 percent of IUP students are probably snuggled up to their pillows on Saturday mornings and enjoying dreamland. (I have two twenty-year-old sophomores, so I also feel fairly informed on the habits of this particular species.)

But, this past Saturday, September 17, some 150 IUP students blew that stereotype. And it wasn’t for cereal and cartoons, but to benefit community agencies in Indiana.

Last Saturday was the fall Into the Streets event, organized by IUP’s Office of Service Learning. Students volunteered for this national day of service at seven sites in Indiana County. Students did everything from painting curbs to helping with the United Way demolition derby fund-raiser to cleaning up around Indiana Borough with borough employees.

The Into the Streets project is in its ninth year at IUP. It happens every fall and spring, and, in spring 2011, there were 300 students who volunteered for service at 13 different community sites. In fact, there were so many students interested in participating that the Office of Service Learning had to go back out to community agencies to ask for more volunteer opportunities. That makes me very proud of our students. The spring event is the bigger of the two, as there tend to be more service opportunities at that time of year, Service Learning officials tell me.

While I’m pleased that 150 students took part in the event this fall and I believe that number is noteworthy, it’s really just a very small part of what our students do each year.

In 2009-2010, 8,752 students volunteered for some kind of community service. That is 58 percent of the IUP student body. And it wasn’t just a one-shot deal for most students: Those IUP students performed 136,810 hours of community service during that academic year. (Totals are still being compiled for 2010-2011.)

So, that means that MORE THAN HALF of IUP students volunteered for their home community in a nine-month period, most in a sustained kind of way. Measured by the current national minimum wage, these work hours would be valued at $991,872.50. That’s just short of A MILLION DOLLARS.

What did they do? Food drives; books for the Community Guidance Center; selling daffodils for the American Cancer Society; helping children learn to read better; cell-phone drives for women in domestic violence situations; being a “big heart” for children in the Big Hearts Little Hands program.

I got a call from the former director of Big Hearts Little Hands (formerly Big Brothers Big Sisters) not too long after I started at IUP. “I want to talk to you about your students,” she started, and I braced myself. “Oh, no, what happened?” I asked, really not wanting to hear the answer.

“Without IUP students, this program couldn’t exist,” she said. “These students are wonderful. It’s a big sacrifice to give up your free time when you are a student and to care about someone else’s child, but they are amazing. I am proud of each and every one of them. Thank you.”

Enough said.

Binai Exhibit: Twentieth Century Retrospective

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Regan Houser

Paul Binai’s work is bold–in color and in thought–and sometimes haunting. The fifty-year retrospective of his work–and glimpse of the twentieth century–is worth a trip to the University Museum. The exhibit served as a backdrop to the University Museum’s Gala fundraiser, Eine Kleine Kit Kat Klub, held last weekend in the Blue Room. The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette covered the event.

There is no admission fee to the University Museum, which is located on the first floor of Sutton Hall. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2:00 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday from noon to 7:30
p.m., and Saturday from noon to 4:00 p.m. The Binai exhibit runs through
December 3. If you go, be sure to pick up a copy of the exhibit catalog. Binai’s biography itself is fascinating and provides perspective to some of what you’ll see hanging in the gallery.

“Understanding” September 11

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Almost everyone has a story of “where I was on September 11, 2011.” Here is mine.

I was off campus for a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce.

The director had his television on, and we both stood there, stunned and silent. I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. “What a horrible accident. How could that happen?” I remember asking out loud, thinking that the pilot must have made a tragic mistake or maybe the plane’s instruments had malfunctioned. The response from the Chamber director is still with me. No words, just a look of disbelief, a failure to understand how anyone could be so naive as to think that these attacks were accidents.

And in seconds, I got it. A sickening realization of the truth. An immediate worry for my family, for my children, who had just arrived at their fifth-grade classrooms at East Pike Elementary School.

“If this could happen in America, in New York City, in Shanksville, at the Pentagon, could it happen here, in my town, at my university, to my home?” It was a question we all were asking.

In the weeks that followed at IUP, we all tried to think about the best ways to help our students, our parents, and our staff and faculty, especially those who had friends and family in New York City and abroad. We offered counseling. We assured worried parents that their children were safe. We decided to keep up business as usual, thinking that it would give students something to do, and to think about, if classes continued. We were afraid for our international students and faculty members, especially those who were Muslim, and tried to offer them as much support as we could.

I hated that this tragedy had taken over our lives, that it was all that we could think about or talk about. I knew it had to be our priority, but I hated it.

I just wanted life before 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001, back.

We spent a lot of hours discussing what we should do “in response to September 11.” We participated in President George W. Bush’s national call for a prayer and remembrance event. More than 4,500 people gathered in the Oak Grove for a ceremony that still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it ten years later.

We needed some kind of educational program, some kind of discussion, we all agreed. We broke things down. It had to be a series, we felt. The issues surrounding September 11 were just too big for one presentation. What would we call it? How would it look?

We came up with “9-11: A Community Discussion.” It felt right for the first program to be about the basics. What had happened? What do we know? I remember suggesting to the planning committee that we should use the word “understand,” as in, “Understanding 9-11.”

Several heads nodded; people started to take notes. Good, I thought. Now we can move on and start planning the program. We can move on, and go back to the way things used to be. If we just understand the what and the why, it will never happen again. We can make sense of things again.

And then a student spoke up. “I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “I don’t think we should say ‘understand.’ I’ll never understand September 11. I can acknowledge it, I can cope with it, I can move past it, but I will never understand it.”

Her comment has been with me since September 2001. And ten years later, I know she is right. I still struggle to “understand” the September 11 attacks.

I’ve moved forward, but without the sense of innocence I had before September 11, 2001. I no longer have the certainty that I had on September 10, 2001, that the violence of the following day just isn’t possible in my world.

I miss that innocence. I miss my children being that naive. I miss America being that naive.

I continue to appreciate that the university and Indiana community come together each September 11 to mark the day. And even though I’ve been thick in the planning of each program and I know the words to be spoken, I still find myself fighting back tears as I stand outside in the Oak Grove, thinking of how our lives were forever changed by September 11, 2001.

I’ve also watched the mother of one of our alumni lost in the World Trade Center attacks accept condolences and flowers from our president during the 2008 ceremony. Her face, still full of grief and disbelief, also will always be with me. I don’t let myself think about it too hard, as it breaks my own heart. Too close to home for those of us who are mothers, especially mothers of sons.

In 2002, less than a month after the first anniversary of September 11, we dedicated an artifact from the World Trade Center, on loan from the Kovalchick family, of Indiana. I’ve watched tour groups go by the monument, and I wonder what these high school students, who were in third and fourth grade in 2001, think about the structure. Maybe September 11 has been so much a part of their lives that they don’t realize there was a time when the World Trade Center was a symbol of commerce and prosperity and Shanksville was just a sleeply little farm town outside of Johnstown.

This year, we have created an opportunity for a different kind of reflection, a more personal time for individuals to think about what this decade has meant to them and what they will do to move forward. I hope it brings comfort and peace to those who take part in this vigil.

I will always grieve for the loss of innocence. But I do not hate talking about September 11. The sadness is with me, but it does not define me any longer.

Thoughts? Comments? Please feel free to share them below.

Welcome to Around the Oak Grove

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Dr. Michael J. Powers

Welcome to our experiment.

One of the main jobs of IUP’s Office of Communications is to tell the story of IUP. Or, rather, stories. With over 15,000 students, 700 professors, and 100,000 living alumni, there are a lot of stories to tell.

We tell them wherever we can: online, in print, in e-mail, on television. But frankly, there are always more great IUP stories than we can ever hope to cover.

This blog is an experiment in getting more of those stories out to the public. We may end up revisiting some of these stories elsewhere–in IUP Magazine, in a profile, or in video form. But in the meantime, we want to get those stories out to the public quickly, in a form that’s easy to digest and share. That’s where Around the Oak Grove comes in.

The Oak Grove is where IUP’s story began, and it’s where IUP’s stories have been unfolding for 136 years. Around the Oak Grove aims to bring you the stories we’re hearing around the Oak Grove right now–stories that aren’t getting heard elsewhere and that we think are worth hearing.

We welcome your comments below.

Around the Oak Grove

A blog of IUP stories by the IUP Office of Communications

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