Author Archives: Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Good News “for a Change”

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What They Said screen shot

I truly do enjoy my job, and I am very appreciative of the folks who go out of their way to tell me that they are happy with the media coverage I’ve arranged. One of my favorite things is when folks e-mail me or stop me out walking around campus with story ideas. Alumni, especially, are very loyal to IUP, and they like to see their university represented fairly for the accomplishments of its students, faculty, and graduates. So, I try not to take it personally when I hear, “Let’s get some good news out there about IUP for a change.” I know they care deeply about IUP and its reputation and are just trying to help.

For the past several years, I’ve been maintaining a log of media hits on the What They Said web page. I think it’s a nice record of IUP in the news, and I hope that people (hint, hint: This means YOU, blog reader) visit it often.

But I’ve not really done an “official” count of media hits for several years, so, last year, I was asked to  count and measure the number of “good news” stories about IUP out there with circulation information. Here’s what we found:

There were 435 positive stories about IUP from January 2010 to January 2011 in 46 different media outlets locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

This does NOT include the hundreds of stories featured on our local radio station OR any stories on athletics. … I imagine the number would probably triple if I counted sports reports and features.

Anyway, these media hits ranged from places like Religion Dispatch (with a circulation of 2.3 million), the New York Times (circulation 740,007), and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune (circulation 534,750) to 29 hits in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (circulation 393,071), 22 hits in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (circulation 319,987), and 310 stories in the Indiana Gazette (circulation 16,000). Using what researchers call the “industry multiplier” (how many people actually read or hear news reports), this means that good news at IUP “for a change” reached 76,474,622 people. Yes, 76.5 million people.

Of course, we don’t catch every media hit, so this is just what I’ve been able to document. I think it’s a pretty impressive number.

That’s the good news. But be assured, I’m working to get that 76.5 million up past 100 million for 2011-2012,…so story tips and ideas are always welcome!

Songbirds and Stuttering

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zebra finchI’m an early riser, and I love the sound of the birds in the morning.

Recently, I learned about a research project that has made me think about songbirds from a whole different point of view.

I came upon this story in a very roundabout way–I got a call from a reporter in the region, looking for information about an IUP professor working with a local company.

Right church, wrong pew. He had the right professor, Paul Nealen, Biology Department, but not the correct information about the type of research. But, it put me onto a great story.

Dr. Nealen believes that the little zebra finch, a songbird native to Australia, may hold the key to understanding speech and hearing issues in humans.

For the past sixteen years, the last six at IUP, Dr. Nealen has been studying how hearing and vocal communication occurs in the zebra finch by examining how their neurons act during learning, memory, and communication.

Okay, just stay with me here.

It is his hope that, as researchers gain a greater understanding of how these neural circuits work in these songbirds, they will be able to determine how–and why–human speech and hearing problems like deafness and stuttering occur.

“We can learn things from birds that are really relevant for humans,” he said.

Paul Nealen, Biology DepartmentDr. Nealen says that songbirds learn to vocalize or sing in a way that matches how humans learn to speak–by hearing themselves practice. In humans, hearing our own speech helps us to produce normal speech. Just ask any parent about that–it’s what we do to help our babies learn to talk.

Who knew that the same is true for zebra finch–hearing their own song helps them to maintain and refine their ability to sing?

The goal of Dr. Nealen’s research is to discover how individual neurons contribute to this overall function of using auditory feedback to guide the production of sounds.

One of the most exciting parts for me in telling the story to reporters is that Dr. Nealen involves IUP Biology undergraduate students in the project. But that’s another blog entry.

Attaque Old Age!

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Lynn Botelho, professor of history

Magazines and newspapers are full of stories about aging boomers who are aggressively taking charge of their health and the aging process, acting as if this is something new. Not surprising, as the boomers’ mantra is “It’s all about me.” (Boomers, don’t e-mail me complaining about this description. First of all, I am one, and, second, if Wikipedia says it, it must be true.)

But it’s NOT new, according to Lynn Botelho, professor of History and the 2011-2012 University Professor.

“People have this perception that this generation of seniors is the first to really ‘fight back’ against aging, and that seniors in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries would ‘go gentle into that good night’ that was old age,” Botelho said.

Lynn Botelho fencing

“That is simply not the case. Geriatric medicine began in the 1700s, not in the nineteenth century, as many people believe. Seniors in the 1500s were well aware of the benefits of moderating their diet, exercising, and special medicinal treatments to address issues related to aging.”

Botelho is a historian of old age and the aging body in early modern England and Europe. Her current work, being completed as part of her role as IUP’s University Professor, is a five-part book, The Aging Body, the first wide-ranging study on old age in Europe in the 1700s.

It might be because I’m just a little south of thirty now (okay, maybe more than a little), but this work makes me feel just a little better about my own efforts to age gracefully.

I’m also totally intrigued by Botelho’s other passion: fencing. And not just working out with the IUP Fencing Club (she has been its advisor for many years). I’m talking WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Botelho is a competitive fencer, in both foil and épée. She won two national titles at the July 2011 United States Fencing championship: an individual Veteran Woman (40-9) national championship and a gold medal as part of the Women’s Veteran Team.

“Fencing is a very physical activity, but it’s also about how well you think under pressure, so it’s a good fit with the life of an academic,” Botelho said.

Lynn Botelho unmasked in fencing gear

And she knows something about the academic life. Botelho has published seven books and thirteen articles or essays on the subject of the history of aging. She serves in several international executive positions in the field of British studies, including as president of the North American Conference on British Studies. She has degrees from the University of Oregon and Oxford and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. She also is a life fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge.

IUP’s University Professor award, a lifetime title, recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates an outstanding record of teaching, research, and scholarly activity and service.

I am very excited that Botelho will be the first IUP professor to be featured on a new television show on WTAJ-TV called “Central PA Live.” She will be a guest on the Wednesday, September 14, show, which airs from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Comcast cable channel 193. And, there’s another IUP connection: The host for the show is a 1979 IUP Journalism graduate, Dawn Pellas.

This week, Botelho will be talking about aging, but she’s already been invited back to do another segment, teaching show host Pellas how to fence! I’ll definitely be tuning in to both shows!

“Understanding” September 11

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September-11-memorial.jpgAlmost 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.

Texting in the Classroom? OMG Yes!

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I’m just going to step up to the microphone and admit it.

I’m Michelle, and I have a love-hate relationship with texting. (Okay, now you answer, “Hi, Michelle.” And I continue.)

I love the convenience of getting a quick answer with a text, but I HATE that my daughter is always giggling about a funny text or tweet she just received when I want her full attention. I just feel like she’s not present in the moment.

I imagine that there are a lot of folks–not just parents–who feel much the same as I do. But I have come to this conclusion: It’s just where we are.

So, I was completely excited when I saw Nursing and Allied Health Professions professor Teresa Shellenbarger’s news about a recent poster presentation that explains how texting can be used effectively in the classroom. I also loved her title: “OMG: Encouraging Texting in the Classroom.” That’s media gold. Encouraging texting in the sacred space that is the classroom? I knew it would attract reporters’ attention.

And it did.

Dr. Shellenberger was featured in a July 30, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story headlined, “Professor Incorporates Use of Cell Phones as Classroom Tool.”

I love her quote: “I just got tired of fighting them. I figured, if I can’t beat them, why not join them? Why not use cell phone technology in class?”

She goes on: “I use texting to poll the class. I post a question for them to see, and they text their answers that I post on a PowerPoint for the class to see. And sometimes when we’re working on a controversial topic where students don’t really want to own a response, I have them phone a friend and get an anonymous opinion to post.”

This quote is my favorite: “A class can be mediocre and dull, and when I tell students to get out their phones and text to a question, the energy level just goes up.”

This media hit was posted on IUP’s Facebook page, and it resulted in several comments, including, “I’m dying to tap into this technology as a tool (in my high school class),” to, “Please don’t encourage cell phone use in the classroom.” Both valid points. Dr. Shellenbarger shared with me the Horizon Report for 2011, which forecasts that cell phones are the “trend to watch” for educators. I’m sure there will be MUCH MORE on this topic!

I’m still working on my twelve steps. See you at the next meeting.

Pride in Place

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I’m not an IUP alumna, but I truly consider myself a part of the IUP family. IUP pride is absolutely contagious.

Of course, I’m completely in the thick of how IUP makes a difference in the lives of current students. And because so much of my work is focused on faculty research and student achievements, I don’t always think about the bigger picture–that there are also hundreds of stories about how IUP made a difference in the lives of past students, our 100,000 living alumni.

Then, IUP gets a $1-million gift from 1961 graduate Terry Serafini, and it just reinforces how deeply IUP alumni care about their university.

Mr. Serafini, a successful Pittsburgh entrepreneur, graduated with a degree in education but has been a longtime friend of the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology (in fact, he was honored in 1996 as the Eberly Entrepreneur of the Year).

He’s earmarked his gift to Eberly for renovation of the building’s atrium, which will be renamed the Serafini Atrium, and to establish the Serafini Outstanding Scholars Program to provide scholarship support to students in the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology and in math education in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Construction just started on the atrium renovation in August.

Eberly-Construction-500px.jpg

This 1,200-square-foot new space will complement the adjacent Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, allowing access to the university through this expanded area. The renovation is expected to take about four months to complete.

No question, the size of this generous gift is news. But I was also impressed with Mr. Serafini’s personal story. He began his business career in 1964 as a computer systems marketing representative for the IBM Corporation. In 1970, he cofounded Computerpeople, Inc., working there for twenty-seven years. During his leadership, the company grew to employ more than 1,300 computer professionals. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the company also maintained offices in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Sacramento, Calif.; and Portland, Ore., providing systems expertise in all disciplines to major corporations throughout the United States.

Mr. Serafini also cofounded Compucom, Inc., a digital-imaging and microfilm-solutions company in Pittsburgh, and formerly served on its board of directors. Before starting his business career, he served as an officer in the United States Army.

There’s a saying that a person is judged by the company he or she keeps. If we extend that maxim to how to judge a university, I think IUP is in pretty outstanding company with alumni like Terry Serafini.

IUP History, from a Tree’s Point of View

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Because I work in Sutton Hall, I think of the Oak Grove as the geographic center of campus, and I often use it as a point of reference (as in, “if you’re in the Oak Grove, face Sutton, and the library is on the right”). But I have come to realize that it is also the emotional center of this campus. I’m so happy to be in an office that has a window facing the Oak Grove, and every day, I spend a few minutes checking out what is happening there.

Late in July, I was working late in my office during a fantastic thunderstorm. Buckets of rain, deafening thunder, and lightning way too close for comfort. The kind of storm that makes you cringe a little in your seat and feel so glad that you’re not out in it. All of a sudden, “CRACK!” “That was WAY too close not to have hit something,” my boss said to me. We looked out the window and, thankfully, could not see flames, so I went back to work.

clip_image001.jpgLater that night, I saw a posting on Facebook from a colleague who works on the fourth floor of Sutton with a picture of the tree that was struck. Amazing. The lightning took the bark completely off one side of the tree in a perfectly straight line.

So, fast forward a couple weeks later. I get a call from Bill Yagle from the Indiana County Archaeology Society. This group has a booth at the Indiana County Fair each year, and the group was interested, this year, in the dedrochronology of this tree struck by lightning.

No, I didn’t know what dedrochronology was either. It means “the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree rings” (thank you, Wikipedia).

Bill, who worked at IUP’s Student Co-op Association for thirty years, wanted a ring from this tree. The ICAS then analyzed the ring, dated the tree, and is doing a display at the Indiana County Fair this year that shows what was happening at IUP (of course, it would have been Indiana State Teachers College or Indiana State Normal School, depending on what the rings tell them) at certain times in the tree’s history. The Indiana Gazette did a great story on the project.

So, when you’re getting your funnel cake, stop by the Indiana County Archaeology Society booth and check out some IUP history.