Category Archives: Alumni

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!

When Students Meet Alumni

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alumni_connections.jpgSome say who you know is as important as what you know. If that’s true, what do you do when you don’t know someone? My colleagues in the Alumni Relations Office are working with the staff of the Career Development Center and IUP’s academic areas to make sure our students make connections in the working world.

Next week, students from Eberly College of Business and the Computer Science Department will travel to Pittsburgh to attend a reception the Alumni Relations staff has planned with employees of PNC Bank. The idea is to give students the chance to make contacts with alumni within the company; those contacts could in turn lead to internships, cooperative experiences, inside knowledge, and, maybe a job after graduation. Mary Jo Lyttle, director of Alumni Relations, asked me to acknowledge the alumni from PNC who have volunteered to serve as the event’s host committee: Davie Huddleston ’69, David Williams ’79, Brady Wise ’95, Joanna Ender DiCiurcio ’02, Gary Greenwood ’06, Jennifer Butter ’07, and Benjamin Pollock ’09.

Alumni Relations and others in University Relations are working on a similar event in New York City in December for students studying business, Fashion Merchandising, and Hospitality Management. More on that later.

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.