IUP in Spotlight as Host for Kennedy Center Theater Festival

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

All is NOT quiet here during the winter break–and IUP could not be more happy and proud.

IUP is hosting the Region II Kennedy Center Theater Festival through Monday, January 16. This means that 1,000 faculty members and students from colleges and universities from the eight-state region are here on campus for workshops, lectures, and performances. This is the second time that IUP has been selected to host the event; we also were the site for the 2010 festival, which featured keynote speaker Bill Pullman.

The keynote presenter for this year’s festival is John Cariani. He’s been in many television series and popular movies, including Kissing Jessica Stein, and was nominated for a Tony Award (Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical) for his performance in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He also has an interesting IUP tie: He was one of the stars of Elephant Sighs, the movie written by former IUP theater professor and playwright Ed Simpson.

There are a number of plays open to the community throughout the festival in the Performing Arts Center’s Fisher Auditorium, along with four special productions for festival audiences. These plays, offered in the Waller Hall Mainstage Theater, are open to community members as seating permits (available seats will be distributed starting about 10 minutes before the performances).

Productions have to be selected for festival performances, and the competition is fierce; 80 colleges and universities are eligible to enter a production for selection.

So, IUP is very proud that festival officials selected an IUP production, Lindsey’s Oyster, for showcase at the festival. The show will be presented in the Waller Hall Mainstage Theater on Friday, January 13, at 5:00 p.m. This is among the performances for which festival attendees have first priority for seating. Tickets are $10 per person.

This show, in addition to presenting outstanding student talent and excellent direction by IUP’s Jason Chimonides, represents IUP’s inaugural commitment to the National Theatre Conference’s Initiative to Celebrate American Women Playwrights. (Note: This production may contain language and situations to which some audience members may object.)

Make sure to check out the festival website to find about more about the peformances. An amazing opportunity for outstanding theater, right in our own backyard.

IUP Students, Staff on Santa’s “Nice” List

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

Food. New books. Christmas trees and ornaments. Toys. Monetary donations. And hundreds of volunteer hours.

IUP’s students and employees should definitely be on Santa’s “nice” list this season when it comes to providing support for families in need in Indiana County.

Here are a few of the projects and programs held in December:

The IUP Libraries has a long-standing tradition of collecting new books for local families, to be distributed through the Salvation Army. This year, the drive benefited 150 children with new books as holiday gifts.

At IUP Punxsutawney, the sixth annual holiday dinner generated 450 donated toys and more than $800 for local families and children in need. This project is a great town-gown event, involving the Red Hat Society of Punxsutawney and many other community members, along with IUP students and staff members and the Aramark staff, to benefit the Salvation Army’s Treasures for Children program and the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots.

Students in Dr. Ray Beisel’s class also worked with Rotary International of Punxsutawney to decorate the community holiday tree in preparation for the community’s Circle of Trees and tree-lighting ceremony.

The Office of Service Learning, which works throughout the year to help coordinate and encourage outreach and volunteerism, organized the university’s having 45 children adopted through the Treasures for Children program, with more than 180 gifts purchased for these families. In addition, more than 75 toys were collected for the Toys for Tots program.

The African-American Cultural Center collected hundreds of donated food items for the Indiana County Community Action Program food bank through its Ujamaa Food Drive.

One of the first holiday outreach projects of the season is the university’s annual tree-lighting and tree-decorating event. The university has done a tree-lighting program for decades, inviting members of the community and elementary school choral groups to perform and then offering seasonal refreshments and time with Santa.

However, seven years ago, the University Events office and the Office of the President joined with IUP’s fraternities and sororities to do a tree-decorating event.

This year, 14 trees were donated and sponsored by IUP and community groups. Then, the decorations and a certificate for a live, fresh tree are donated to families through the Salvation Army. The students go out into the community to collect money for the Treasures for Children program and for a special scholarship encouraging leadership and service.

It’s a wonderful way to end the semester.

Happy holidays to all. Best wishes for a healthy and restful semester break.

Hair for a Month, Impact Here Forever

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

IUP’s Greek fraternities raised $1,500 for the national Movember project, which promotes awareness of men’s health issues, especially prostate and testicular cancers.

No, that wasn’t a typo.

“Movember,” a.k.a. November, is named to reflect both the month and the activity. During November, men at IUP were encouraged to grow a mustache (or “mo”) in support of the project and men’s health.

Some 30 IUP men, most in fraternities, grew mustaches and participated in a “pack the house” event for the November 14, 2011, men’s basketball game, staged a bowling tournament, and held several other fund-raising events throughout the month, plus the Movember Gala early in December.

There were prizes–for teams and for individuals–including the “Man of Movember” award, won by Mike Stough from Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.

A very nice way to end the semester.

IUP Students Living-In and Saving Lives

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

On October 20, 2011, three IUP student members of the Indiana Fire Association helped to rescue and save a man from an apartment fire.

Then, W. Travis Burket, Simeon Logan, and Matthew Reynolds got back onto the fire engine and went home.

The three students–along with fellow firefighters Michael Santos and Benjamin Harley, who were also part of that rescue operation–are live-in members of the Indiana Fire Association.

According to Bill Simmons, IFA president, in the 1970s, there were 300,000 volunteer firefighters in the nation; today, there are 50,000.

“We knew we needed to be innovative if we wanted to keep up our ranks,” Simmons said. “So, we approached IUP’s Safety Sciences Department to see if their students would want to be part of our program.”

Today, 16 of the 70 members of the association are IUP students, and six are part of the live-in program. The bedrooms for the students are at the Indiana Fire Association-West substation, along Indian Springs Road. To be eligible for the program, applicants must be employed full-time in the Indiana or White Township area or be part-time or full-time students at IUP. Students must have at least a 2.0 grade-point average. They can live at the substation for four years.

On December 15, 2011, the team was recognized with a resolution of commendation from the IUP Council of Trustees, along with much applause and pride from members of the Indiana Fire Association in attendance, including Simmons and IFA chief Chuck Kelly.

(Pictured, from left, are Simeon Logan, Travis Burket, and Matthew Reynolds.)

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.

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!

Students at International Conferences? You Bet!

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

IUP students truly do have the best of all worlds.

Faculty are committed to teaching and being available to students, AND faculty are part of cutting-edge research. Because they understand the value of both worlds, faculty know how to push students “out of the nest” and give them opportunities they may not have thought possible.

Daniel O’Hara, a Geoscience and Computer Science major from Ebensburg, has been selected to present at the American Geophysical Union Annual International Conference in San Francisco in December.

I’ve been to Ebensburg. It’s a lovely little town, population 3,091 as of the 2000 census, but my point is that it’s a long way from there to presenting at an INTERNATIONAL conference with 20,000 geoscientists from all over the planet. That is not a typo–there will be 20,000 scientists at this event.

Graduate students, especially those at the Ph.D. level, often have research and presentation opportunities at other universities, but IUP excels at giving undergraduates the chance to do research worthy of international presentations and then helping them acquire the skills and confidence to be part of prestigious conferences and meetings.

IUP also commits its financial resources to making these kinds of opportunities possible–in Daniel’s case, he received support from the Department of Geoscience, the School of Graduate Studies and Research, the dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and the IUP McNair Scholars Program.

Daniel’s presentation is just the tip of the iceberg in counting up research presentation opportunities for undergraduates. It happens in all disciplines, from Anthropology to Theater and Dance.

Meggie Pace For example, Meghan Pace, an Anthropology/Archaeology Track major from Bucks County, presented her research at a national conference in Atlanta, and it resulted in her landing a summer job at a geophysical consulting firm. … That’s in addition to her doing archaeological research in China’s Fujian Province–all as an undergraduate. She’s now working on her master’s degree at IUP.

For the past six years, IUP has offered undergraduates an opportunity to prepare and present research and creative works at the Undergraduate Scholars Forum. Last year, the School of Graduate Studies and Research coordinated a forum for graduate research.

Congratulations, Daniel, and all of our students selected for these types of presentations. You bring great pride to IUP!

IUP Honors Veteran Killed in Persian Gulf with Scholarship

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

IUP works to honor and remember those who lost their lives in service to our country. The memorials on campus recognizing our veterans were the subject of a special IUP Magazine story titled “Honoring, Remembering Our Own” in 2010.

Recently, the IUP College of Education and Educational Technology remembered a very special young woman from our community who never got the opportunity to attend IUP.

Beverly Sue Clark, a native of Armagh, was one of thirteen Army reservists killed in a scud missle attack during the Persian Gulf War in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Clark, an employee of Season-All in Indiana, had planned to enter IUP’s education program and become a teacher upon her return from the Persian Gulf. In her honor, friends and family members established the Beverly Sue Clark Scholarship for students preparing for a career in teaching, with special consideration given to military personnel and veterans of the war in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan and their family members.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of her death.

The Beverly Sue Clark scholarship is is just one of several scholarships established in honor of those who have lost their lives in service to our country or who are veterans of military service.

The memorials and these memorial scholarships remind us that these special individuals are remembered and appreciated–not just on Veterans Day, but throughout the year, especially by those who have received these scholarships.

In the case of Beverly Sue Clark, her dream of touching the future through teaching comes true through the generosity of her family and friends and by all who have received her scholarship. What a wonderful way to add to her already very special legacy.

Hair, Hair…All for Men’s Health Awareness

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

It’s going to get a little hairy around campus this month.

For the second year in a row, IUP’s fraternities are taking over November and creating “Movember,” much to the dismay of those who like a clean-shaven man.

During Movember, men are encouraged to “grow their mos” (mustaches) as part of the national Movember men’s health awareness program, which focuses mainly on two men’s cancers, testicular and prostate.

Think of it as the manly version of the famous pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness.

Tonight, the Hadley Union Building atrium will take on a very different feel, as some thirty fraternity members take part in the “shave off” to begin the Movember project.

Later this month, there will be another men’s health awareness project, in which the fraternities will “pack the house” for the men’s basketball game against Thiel College on November 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex. Messages about men’s health and these cancers will be prominently displayed and presented during the game.

Then, on November 28, the furry-faced fraternity brothers will stage a bowling tournament (open to the community) at Mohawk Lanes. This is one of several fund-raising events for Movember. Last year’s event–the first at IUP–raised almost $2,000, which was donated to the national project fighting testicular and prostate cancer.

Early in December, men will go mustache-to-mustache for an event to judge the most iconic mos. According to Betsy Sarneso, director of Student Leadership and Greek Life, last year’s Movember mustaches (say THAT three times fast) were grown in the style of Mario (of video game fame) and samurai warriors.

While the growing of mustaches is all in fun, these cancers are very serious. They are hard to talk about, but awareness and education are a great start.

So, the next time you see a young man with a mustache, think about what kind of important message that furry upper lip is sending. And here’s another bonus: Many of these fraternity men will have an easy and very inexpensive gift for mom for the holidays: a clean-cut son!

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Category Archives: Student Opportunities