Creating a Culture of Writing Success

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

There’s an old saying by writer Red Smith: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

Many students might very well agree with that sentiment.

Fortunately for IUP students, there is a great resource to help with becoming better writers, the IUP Writing Center. Students make good use of the facility and its tutors: The Writing Center helps more than 1,500 students each semester.

The IUP Writing Center is directed by Bennett (Ben) Rafoth, a member of the IUP Department of English, who also holds the title of University Professor. (He was selected for this honor, which recipients hold for a lifetime, in 2010.) As the University Professor, he was the undergraduate commencement ceremony speaker in December 2010.

He is recognized internationally for his work with teaching writing, and during his tenure as University Professor, his projects included a book focused on better serving multilingual writers in writing centers and an online writing center, which is now offered through the IUP Writing Center. His most recent book is ESL Writers: A Guide for Learning Center Tutors.

The center, located in Eicher Hall, took its expertise “on the road” recently, when Dr. Rafoth; Mitch James, assistant director of the center; and Lindsay Sabatino, a teaching associate in the English Department, visited West Virginia University for a special colloquium last month focused on creating writing center learning cultures.

They joined 21 tutors and directors from WVU and Duquesne. IUP’s presentation at the event focused on online writing centers. (IUP’s online center was launched in September.)

Dr. Rafoth will continue to showcase IUP’s Writing Center and its successes when he co-hosts the International Writing Centers Association Summer Institute in July 2012 at Seven Springs Mountain Resort. This weeklong event is expected to draw writing center directors throughout the nation.

Our IUP alumni also are demonstrating what they’ve learned at IUP about teaching writing and writing centers. Columbia University recently published a new book on writing centers, The Successful High School Writing Center: Building the Best Program with Your Students, co-authored by Dawn Fels and Jennifer Wells, graduates of IUP’s Composition and TESOL doctoral program.

And they did not forget about IUP and Dr. Rafoth in writing the book. He co-authored the first chapter with the former students.

There’s No Place Like Home (Health Care)

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

On Friday, December 9, the IUP Department of Nursing and Allied Health Professions will introduce Red Yoder, Carl Shapiro, and Tamara Clark.

However, you probably won’t see their biographies on the IUP website.

Red, Carl, and Tamara are residents of the new Nursing and Allied Health Professions Simulation Laboratory, located on the ground floor of IUP’s Donna D. Putt Hall.

IUP will formally “cut the ribbon” for the new facility at 10:30 a.m. Friday. It will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

This new simulation laboratory is designed especially to help prepare nursing students for careers in home health care. One of the areas in the laboratory is Red’s “apartment,” which includes a telehealth system. Telehealth allows the patient to work with a monitor at home that transmits health information to the home health care agency.

The simulation laboratory also includes training on electronic medical records.

Department chair Elizabeth (Lisa) Palmer was successful in 2010 in securing a $299,890 federal grant to create the new laboratory. She is the project director, and Julia Greenawalt, assistant chair, is co-director.

“Because of a shortage of nurses, there are an increasing number of home health care patients, especially in the rural areas, who are monitored by telehealth systems,” Palmer explains. “This simulation equipment enhances undergraduate nursing education with opportunities to practice nursing care using electronic documentation and telehealth services prior to a student’s on-site experiential work.

“The new simulated laboratory will advantage IUP students because a telehealth nurse must not only receive data from patients, but learn how to work with patients in the home.”

The Putt lab manikins are designed with programs to mimic a rural patient with a common chronic illness, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, or obesity.

During the open house, visitors will “meet” Red in his “home” at 11:00 a.m. At noon, visitors can observe a critical care situation with Carl. At 1:00 p.m., Tamara will be examined after having a baby. Then, at 2:00 p.m., Red is in need of additional care.

In addition to the simulations, tours of the new facility are available throughout the day, and visitors can also check their own blood pressure at a kiosk.

The department introduced its first simulation laboratory in 2007. This lab, in Johnson Hall, was renovated and expanded in 2009 and includes nine adult manikins, two adolescent manikins, a pediatric manikin, and other training equipment. (This lab has two hospital rooms that are so accurate in their resemblance to a real hospital setting that the lab was used by a national recording artist as the site for a music video!)

The best thing about these labs is that they are in constant use by students and faculty members. Nursing majors are initiated into use of the lab with medium-fidelity manikins in their sophomore year, and “by their senior year, our nursing students have become very skilled with hands-on care,” Palmer said. In addition to the hands-on experience, the entire class has an excellent learning opportunity when it watches the simulation from the observation room.

Our nursing students continue to excel. For example, IUP’s pass rate for the NCLEX, the national exam for nurses, is 96.1 percent for first-time test takers, compared to a national average of 87 percent. They also are in high demand by employers in all types of health care.

So, come congratulate them Friday and learn more about how our nation’s future nurses are being trained. I think you’ll breathe a little easier, thinking about your health care future.

Stamp’s World Premiere Represents Tragedy of September 11

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Jack Stamp, one of IUP’s outstanding music professors and the chair of the IUP Department of Music, will bring the world premiere of his “Canticle: Voces Candentes” to IUP on December 8 at 8:00 p.m.

“Voces candentes” means falling voices. According to Dr. Stamp, the composition “represents the feelings of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, including the horror as well as the love.” The work was written in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 tragedy.

The libretto for the piece is by Anna George Meek, who has had many of her works published in noteworthy journals including the Missouri Review, where she was awarded the Tom McAfee Discovery Prize.

Program cover In addition to Dr. Stamp as conductor, the presentation will feature Michael Hood, dean of the College of Fine Arts, as the narrator, and the musical talents of the IUP Symphony Orchestra, the IUP Wind Ensemble (conducted by Dr. Stamp), and members of the IUP Chorale and IUP Chorus.

In the first half of the concert, the IUP Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Stanley Chepaitis, will perform works by Franz Joseph Haydn and Igor Stravinsky.

The December 8 performance is certainly not Dr. Stamp’s first world premiere. This entry would be several pages long if it included all of his well-known pieces, many of them commissioned by individuals or organizations.

Respected internationally as a composer and conductor, Dr. Stamp is IUP’s 2008-2009 University Professor, an honor reserved for our most outstanding teachers, researchers, and scholars. It’s a title that the recipients hold for a lifetime.

Dr. Stamp, who came to IUP in 1990, has accomplished a great deal during his tenure here. One of “our own” (he earned his bachelor’s degree in Music Education at IUP in 1976), he is also the recipient of the 1995 IUP Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2007 Distinguished Faculty Award for Creative Arts. He also was honored with a citation of excellence from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association in 1999 and by the American Bandmaster Association in 2000.

Dr. Stamp’s talents and reputation led to the presentation of “And The Time Is,” a poem by Pennsylvania poet laureate Samuel Hazo, for use in one of Stamp’s compositions.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he has been an invited performer and conductor both nationally and internationally. He is the director and recording producer of the Keystone Wind Ensemble, a university-alumni group. The group’s CDs are amazing and showcase IUP’s outstanding faculty and alumni. The group has also been part of international performances and events, including the 2009 International Trumpet Guild conference.

Not only will this concert showcase IUP’s talented students and faculty members, it’s another chance to celebrate our nation’s resilience after the tragedy of September 11.

Thank you, Dr. Stamp, for offering this amazing opportunity to our students and to all of us.

Art in Public

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Art in Oak Grove, full view Students in Robert Sweeny’s art class are REALLY putting themselves out there.

For their final project, students were asked to take something personal that they do and put it on public display. One group decided to showcase its personal interests right in the Oak Grove.

Nicole Keebaugh, Asia Sanchez, Emily Manno, and Jake Good set up a tent to showcase an interest in camping (Good’s interest).

Other students in the group are in the tent doing things that they do in their personal lives. Manno is knitting, Keebaugh is texting, and other students will be “on display” later today.

The students hope to be in the Oak Grove throughout the day today, for as long as weather permits (50 degrees in December definitely makes the project much more comfortable). “It might rain later this afternoon, so we’ll have to see,” Manno said of the ending time for the project.

Least Happy and Low Marks? A Perplexing Contradiction

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

We were more than a little perplexed to find IUP on two “bonus lists” in this year’s Princeton Review Best Colleges guidebooks: “Professors Get Low Marks” and “Least Happy Students.”

When we asked how the surveys were done, the guidebook editors would not tell us much. They did tell us that they conducted the survey for these bonus lists during the 2008-2009 academic year and that they would resurvey IUP students this year.

We know that students can be, and will be, brutally honest. But in this case, the truth from student surveys is better than any well-crafted press release.

Here’s what our students said about IUP in the Best Colleges 2012 listing:

“An affordable school that has something to offer everyone,” with “excellent academic programs” that are “academically challenging but not impossible if you make an honest effort.”

Students recognize “music, nursing, and education” as IUP’s “greatest strengths,” along with the “fantastic fine arts program,” the College of Business, the Robert E. Cook Honors College, and “solid programs in theater, mathematics, chemistry, criminology, and English.”

They said IUP is “about learning to be the best at your career in the future” and offer that IUP’s “academic programs are exceptional.”

One of the things of which we are most proud is the opinion our students have of our faculty. Here’s what they said to guidebook editors:

Students here enjoy “awesome professors” who are “concerned with [students’] welfare and academic growth,” and the students find their teachers “ridiculously easy to get into contact with–no need to make an appointment.”

Students also have positive things to say about extracurricular life at IUP:

The school also boasts a “good selection of clubs” that provide a quick way “to meet people.”

“No matter what your interest is, it wouldn’t be too hard to find someone that you can share this interest with,” students write.

I’m not a data person, nor an expert in survey methodology, but I do know that every day, I learn about students who are winning national and international awards:

Five Goldwater Scholarships in the past seven years
Ten student Fulbright awards
Sixteen national study abroad awards, including the first Bridging Scholarship for study in Japan
Phi Kappa Phi scholarships
The top ROTC cadet in the nation recognition

And the list goes on.

I wouldn’t agree that students who are working this hard, giving back to the community, and achieving these kinds of honors are the “least happy” among their peers at other colleges and universities.

Again, I’m not an expert on surveys, but I know that these accomplishments don’t happen without an excellent faculty–with members who are routinely recognized for outstanding teaching and research, who win Fulbright Scholarships on an almost annual basis (61 to date), who involve students in cutting-edge research, and who mentor students on their way to great internships and careers. Students like Chad Hurley, a 1999 graduate who went on to co-found YouTube and then donated $1 million to the university in honor of his former track coach, music professor Edwin Fry.

The accomplishments of our students and faculty would fill pages. (Check out a sampling in the archives of this blog.)

IUP has been selected by the Princeton Review for inclusion in its Best Colleges guidebook for the last eleven years, not to mention receiving recognition as “Best in the Mid-Atlantic” and on another bonus list: “Outstanding Professors.” The Eberly College of Business and Information Technology has been listed for the last seven years in the Princeton Review’s “Best Business Schools.”

Add to that list the many honors from Forbes magazine, U.S. News and World Report, the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, and Washington Monthly magazine, to name a few.

The listings, literally, fill several pages and cover several decades.

There has been discussion about IUP’s inclusion on these two bonus lists by the IUP community, especially on Facebook. The student and alumni postings have vigorously defended IUP, offering that life at IUP is very happy, and its faculty is excellent.

This same discussion, I would imagine, is going on at Rutgers, the University of Oregon, the University of Connecticut, and Iowa State University (who join us on these listings).

One of the student comments in the Princeton Review is that “college is all about what you make it.” I think our faculty and students make IUP a pretty happy, A+ place.

Honoring the Honor Society

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Not only does IUP have prestigious honor societies–its honor societies get honors.

IUP founded its chapter of Phi Kappa Phi in 1993. Designed to recognize excellence in all academic disciplines, Phi Kappa Phi is one of the oldest honor societies in the nation, with about three hundred chapters on college and university campuses throughout North America.

Earlier this fall, IUP was notified that its Phi Kappa Phi chapter was named a “Chapter of Excellence.” This designation goes to the very best of the best. In fact, IUP is one of only eleven Chapters of Excellence in North America and the only one with this designation in Pennsylvania.

What does that mean?

It shows that the IUP chapter and the IUP chapter leadership–the current president is Dennis Giever in the Department of Criminology and the immediate past president is Marveta Ryan-Sams, Department of Foreign Languages–along with all the former chapter officers, have been active in meeting, organizing meaningful initiations, and seeking national fellowships for graduate study, study abroad scholarships, and the Love of Learning awards.

These awards offer significant and very selective scholarships to students for study abroad and graduate study.

Membership in Phi Kappa Phi is by invitation only, and only the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and the top 7.5 percent of juniors will qualify for invitation for induction. Faculty and professional staff members and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify.

Congratulations, IUP Phi Kappa Phi!

English Class Project Marks World AIDS Day

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Veronica Watson‘s Topics in English class has designed a public humanities project to coincide with World AIDS Day.

“The students have done everything from conceptualize the project to arrange all the logistics to bring it to the world, to all of the publicity and media you might see around it,” she told me.

And, not only has this involved posters, fliers, other publicity materials (including a Facebook page), students have worked to collect poetry, memoirs, and photography to do a “story trail” in the Oak Grove. They will be installing the pieces this afternoon in the Oak Grove, and the story trail will be up through December 1.

Tonight from 4:00 to 7:00 in Folger Hall, the group will stage an awareness game called “Who’s on Fire.” On November 29, it will show the award-winning film Philadelphia at 5:30 p.m. in the Crimson Event Center in Folger Hall. After the film, people will be invited to offer personal testimonies. Information about AIDS also will be available.

My colleagues and I agree that one of the best things about working at a university is seeing the passion and commitment that our students have for important causes. Watching them take what they’ve learned in the classroom–and seeing how well our faculty members encourage them to take classroom experiences into real-life projects–makes me even more proud to be part of this university community.

P.S. Other AIDS awareness events on campus include the World AIDS Day Awareness Event on December 1 in the Ohio Room of the Hadley Union Building, sponsored by the IUP Office of Health Awareness and the African American Cultural Center. The event opens with an open mic session at 7:00 p.m. and continues with a presentation at 8:00 p.m. with Dr. Linda Frank, associate professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh, who will provide an update on HIV. Dr. Frank also is the Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the Pennsylvania-MidAtlatnic AIDS Education and Training Center.

There also will be information tables in Stapleton Library November 29 and November 30 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. offering more information about AIDS.

Happy Anniversary, Management Services Group

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Happy anniversary wishes are in order for IUP’s Management Services Group.

The MSG is an umbrella organization for outreach programs of IUP’s Eberly College of Business and Information Technology. The goal of the MSG is to make a significant contribution to the economic vitality of the region by providing services to ongoing and startup businesses, both profit and nonprofit.

Without question, it has met that goal.

The MSG provides specialty business services through the Center for Family Business, Excellence in Entrepreneurial Leadership Center, Government Contracting Assistance Program, Small Business Development Center, Small Business Incubator, and Small Business Institute.

All of these programs not only serve the Indiana County region and regional businesses, but the Management Services Group also offers both undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity for real-life experiences and to make connections with businesses and agencies that help lead to internships and employment.

For example, the Small Business Institute serves businesses by creating teams of students to answer the specific needs of the business. The SBI has worked with Cherry Hill Manufacturing, Chestnut Ridge Golf Resort and Conference Center, Four Footed Friends, Gorell Enterprises, Indiana Regional Medical Center, Lockheed Martin, Renda Broadcasting, and the United Way of Indiana County, to name just a few of the clients. The work it has done has resulted in six national awards for excellence.

All the programs involve students and faculty members, working closely together, in one way or another. It’s just another example of how IUP takes learning outside the classroom, to benefit students AND our community.

Here’s to twenty more years of excellence…and more!

Accreditation Distinguishes IUP Programs

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

The good news keeps coming in terms of continued accreditations for IUP’s departments and programs, and for those affiliated with IUP.

Most recently, the Indiana County Child Day Care Program, which serves as the laboratory for students in IUP’s Child Development and Family Relations Program, was re-accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Earlier this month, the dietetics track in the Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition program in the Department of Food and Nutrition was recognized with full, continued accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education.

In September, the IUP Counseling Center was notified of its reaccreditation by the International Association of Counseling Services Inc., an organization of American, Canadian, and Australian counseling agencies.

In August, the Computer Science Department’s degree program in Computer Science/Languages and Systems Track was recognized with accreditation by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET.

In April, the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology was notified of its continued accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

And, IUP as an institution holds accreditation through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Truly, the list goes on and on, with some fifty programs on the list compiled by the Division of Academic Affairs.

So, what does this mean to the faculty, students, and parents? That IUP programs are not stagnant, for one thing. Departments must continue to be accountable for standards and outcomes, or they are at risk of losing their accreditation.

Second, that the university’s programs are designed to meet standards to help students be competitive when they graduate, as programs with accreditation are expected to measure how well students are learning.

And finally, accreditation means that a university has passed the test of independent reviewers. It’s great to see that IUP and its programs are “A” students.

Accreditation. Don’t go to a university without it!

IUP’s John McCarthy: “Let’s Talk about Suicide”

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

In addition to teaching, researching, and mentoring students, IUP’s faculty members are often part of local, regional, national, and international groups and nonprofit agencies offering expertise in a variety of fields.

John McCarthy, a professor in IUP’s Department of Counseling and director of IUP’s Center for Counselor Training and Services, is a member of the Westmoreland County Suicide and Awareness Prevention Task Force, among other organizations.

In observance of tomorrow’s Annual International Survivors of Suicide Day, Dr. McCarthy authored a powerful editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 17.

Titled “Let’s Talk about Suicide,” the editorial points out that the topic of suicide is often a taboo topics for families, communities, and societies. However, Dr. McCarthy notes that while homicides are often in media headlines, suicides rarely make the news.

He then offers the startling figure that the act of suicide took the lives of more than 34,000 Americans in 2007 (according to the Centers for Disease Control). This compares to more than 18,000 homicides commited that same year.

He also shares data from the American Academy of Suicidology that indicate that more than 1,500 Pennsylvanians lost their lives to suicide in 2008. And, for every life lost, as many as 25 people attempt suicide.

He ends his editorial urging awareness and discussion.

“Suicide. It is a sensitive topic, to be sure, yet it too often is on the Taboo List of things to discuss. Let’s remove it. Let’s talk.”

Dr. McCarthy is well-known in the field of counseling. In addition to his work at IUP and with this regional group, he serves on the board of directors of the Center for Credentialing and Education, a corporate affiliate of the National Board of Certified Counselors.

During spring 2011, he seved as an academic visitor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. He is widely published and, since 2009, has participated in the International Academic Fellowship Program in the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute. In this role, he works with the Department of Psychology at Yerevan State University in Armenia.

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