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Posted on November 4, 2011 by Dr. Michael J. Powers

Our Communications Office experiment has been running for little over two months now, and we’ve been pleased with the response we’ve received thus far.

To make it easier to keep up with Around the Oak Grove, we are now offering e-mail subscriptions. Just follow the “Subscribe to Around the Oak Grove by E-mail” link at the bottom of the rightmost column on this page, and you’ll get a signup form.

Of course, you can still subscribe to Around the Oak Grove using Google Reader or any other RSS reader. We’ll also be including regular links to our posts in IUP Daily.

Good Reasons to Prepare for Zombies

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Emily Smith

So you’re just trying to live your normal little life, when out of the blue vampires and zombies start their own battle for global domination. What’s a poor human to do?

It’s fun to mentally compare the strengths and weaknesses of both monsters, as was done at the recent Six O’Clock Series event, “Vampires vs. Zombies: The Debate.” Two authors of books that discussed how to survive their respective favorite creature outbreak squared off to support their choice of the winner. Scott Bowen (The Vampire Survival Guide) and Matt Mogk (Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Zombies) have appeared on Spike TV’s Deadliest Warrior, which featured an episode that attempted to demonstrate who would win. Claws were compared to bites, and intelligent yet emotional killing machines were compared to a horde of unstoppable and mindless abattoirs on feet.

The winner on Deadliest Warrior was vampires, but by an extremely narrow margin (the Six O’Clock Series audience’s vote was decidedly in favor of zombies). The comparisons were fun, and the examples, though gruesome, were light-hearted because, after all, we’re talking about fictional creatures and an impossible scenario. But there was one point, almost idly mentioned in passing, that carries serious relevance: The Centers for Disease Control has created printed publications and a website on how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign has become an effective way to help people think about disaster preparedness. As the website notes, “If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse, you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack.”

When hordes of the undead start menacing society, people may start thinking more about protecting their families than going to work. Roads may become impassable, and, as services begin to break down, there would be shortages of food and water. Deliveries of critical supplies, such as gasoline, oil, and medicine, would slow down or stop. Power outages would become an issue, as would lack of sanitation. The results of a disaster would be similar no matter the cause: zombie horde or terrorist attack, natural disaster (volcano or earthquake) or manmade (nuclear accident or biological contamination).

Be Prepared warning from the CDC When vampires and zombies wage war, or when any catastrophe occurs, humanity will feel the results. In the end, it doesn’t matter which of the monsters win. It’s all about how we handle the situation and what we do to save ourselves.

So learn how to survive a zombie attack. Be ready for when the battle rolls onto your lawn. Let’s hope catastrophe will never strike home in your lifetime. But knowing that you are prepared, in at least some small measure, will help you fall back to sleep easier when you hear that mysterious bump in the night.

Wisnicki’s Examination of Livingstone’s Diary: Truths and Better Truths

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Regan Houser

Update, November 11: The BBC also featured this discovery, and the report can be seen on the BBC website. The Associated Press also filed a report, as did the New York Times.

The Google Alert I received in my in box yesterday morning made me say out loud, “Oh!” It was an article in the Washington Post about one of our own professors’ hunt for special treasure.

Adrian Wisnicki, who joined IUP’s faculty this fall, teaches British Literature in the English Department. His discovery and analysis of one of David Livingstone’s journals led to the story, which appeared in the November 1 edition. See the story.

Wisnicki, who is the codirector of the Center for Digital Humanities and Culture at IUP, initially went in search of Livingstone’s field diary for the insight it would provide on Central Africa’s culture in 1871, and he found it with the help of an archivist at the David Livingstone Center in Scotland. Wisnicki worked with Library of Congress spectral imaging experts to decipher the makeshift journal fashioned out of old newspaper and ink made from berries, which Livingstone, who was low on supplies, was forced to use. Wisnicki found discrepancies between Livingstone’s working journal–the tattered find from Scotland–and his ultimate published work.

The conclusion is that Livingstone may have chosen to bend the truth to hide a few details that, in hindsight, would have reflected badly on his pristine image, according to the article. The famous explorer, missionary, and physician published an account of a massacre that eventually led to the abolition of a certain slave market, but his diary tells a different account.

Not even after a hundred forty years can someone hide from a persistent person and spectral imaging. Facts are stubborn things, although Wisnicki is still analyzing the journal’s contents.

Wisnicki and the colleagues who worked on the project have ensured the full text of the journal is available online, hosted at UCLA’s library. See the David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project.

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!

Celebrating Native American Heritage

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

There’s a beautiful photograph in the president’s office at IUP, taken by retired Communications Media professor Richard Lamberski.

The photo, titled “We Have Survived,” is of a dance at the 2009 Tipton Powwow.

On November 12, it will be formally presented to IUP by Clifton Pembleton, chair of the IUP Native American Awareness Council, as a “cultural trust to the president of IUP with grateful appreciation from the IUP Native American Awareness Council.”

The presentation begins the fifth annual celebration of American Indian Heritage Month on campus, scheduled from noon to 5:00 p.m. in the Hadley Union Building Delaware Room. It’s free and open to the community and will feature a variety of performers, including Mathew White Eagle Clair, Bill Crouse, Drums of Native Sisters and Michael Jacobs.

Anyone who has had a longtime affiliation with IUP knows Clifton Pembleton and his wife, Sandy, who both recently retired from IUP, and how active they have been with the council and the work of creating more awareness about Native American culture.

Clif and Sandy are joined by several IUP faculty members on the Native American Awareness Council: Sarah Neusius, Anthropology, vice chair; Holly Boda-Sutton, Theater and Dance; James Dougherty and Melanie Hildebrandt, Sociology; Robert Millward and Monte Tidwell, Professional Studies in Education; Theresa Smith, Religious Studies; student Germaine McArdle (Oglala, Lakota Sioux); and Jennifer Soliday, Dan Mock, and Kinorea Tigris (Cherokee, Creek, Oglala, Lakota and Sioux).

IUP’s celebration of Native American Awareness Month came after Ms. Soliday, then an undergraduate, wrote to the IUP president, “I feel that it would be in the university’s best interest to demonstrate IUP’s sensitivity to American Indian culture and formally recognize this November, and every November, as American Indian Heritage Month.”

The president agreed, as did the IUP Council of Trustees. Talk about a great legacy and how one voice can truly make a difference.

Five years later, not only is the event gaining in popularity, but the NAAC is continuing its efforts to build awareness about Native American culture and to enhance and build Native American programs at IUP, including exchanges and educational events.

Sands of Compassion…Take a Peek

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

Imagine millions of grains of sand from Indiana, Pa., traveling throughout the world, with the mission of creating compassion wherever the streams, rivers, and oceans take them.

Stuart Chandler, a professor of Religious Studies and chairperson of the department, is responsible for the visit this week of ten Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery. The monks are creating a mandala of compassion in the Hadley Union Building. It’s fascinating to watch, and visitors also get a chance to build a community sand art project, using the same tools used by the monks.

And just in case you think it’s simple, or casual, think about this. The monks go through two years of training, memorizing hundreds of mandala designs, and must be chosen for this work. I wish I had a better word than “work”; it is not work in the way that we think of the term in America–it’s a way of life. Dr. Chandler told me that the head monk was born in Tibet and smuggled out of the country as a child, becoming a monk at the age of five. He never saw his family again. The monks all have a special role to play: some chant, some dance, some are the mandala creators.

I strongly encourage you to visit the program. During the mandala creation, the monks are silent unto themselves (for the seven hours per day that they work). They are in the HUB working from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today, Thursday, and Friday; from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday; and from noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday.

But if you can’t get to the HUB, you can still be part of the project. There is a live webcam capturing the work being done on the mandala. The intensity of their concentration is evident, even over the Internet. (We are showing the live webcam on this entry, too. Refresh to update the picture.)

On Monday, the mandala will be completed–just for an hour, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.–and then will be swept up, with bags of sand being distributed to visitors. The rest of the sand will be carried in a vase by the monks down Philadelphia Street and put into a stream, to find its way into the ocean.

“It’s about filling the world with compassion,” Dr. Chandler explains.

The monks travel for two years and then return to the monastery in India. They have been to many colleges and universities throughout the United States and have been at the Smithsonian. IUP hosted the monks for a mandala construction in 2003 and 2006. These appearances also were arranged by Dr. Chandler, who has been at IUP since 2000. His area of concentration is the religions of China and Japan, especially Buddhism, and he has also conducted research closer to home. His “Eastern Religions Come to Western Pennsylvania” exhibition in 2005 at the University Museum reflected his study on the evolving religious landscape of Pennsylvania. His current project is the translation of the memoirs of Oishi Junkyo, a geisha, artist, and Buddhist nun in early twentieth century Japan.

When I think of the term “renaissance man,” Dr. Chandler comes to mind. In addition to his “day job,” in summer 2006, he bicycled 2,000 miles across the northern United States and Canada with his son Evan, and he also is a musician in the Indiana-famous Dad Band.

On Saturday evening, the monks will be at the Performing Arts Center’s Fisher Auditorium as part of the Lively Arts programming. “The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Song Sacred Dance” is a mixture of traditional dances, Tibetan multiphonic chanting, and other music to channel inner spirituality and enlightenment.

A pretty amazing week at IUP.

Lack of Motivation? Maybe It’s Really Immobilization

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

IUP’s Nursing and Allied Health programs are known to be VERY challenging.

They take a very limited number of students, and students must have a high grade-point average to be accepted. There are very intensive practicums and internships in addition to classroom study.

Frankly, I’m completely okay with that. If one of these students is, someday, somewhere, going to be at the control of my ventilator or dosing out my meds, I WANT the program to be hard. I don’t want these students to be “good enough.” I want them to be excellent.

So, that said, there is a shortage of nurses, not just in Pennsylvania, but in the nation. Some of our nursing students have a great potential to be amazing nurses, but they may be struggling in a course. Wash them out? Not so fast, Susan Poorman, Nursing and Allied Health faculty member, says.

Educators need to rethink attitudes about struggling students.

“As educators, we often believe that struggling students are not really motivated. They don’t care about learning; they don’t come to the teacher for help or attend test reviews. But one thing we have learned from listening to our students’ stories is that, often, they are not unconcerned but are immobilized. They just don’t know what to do to fix the problem,” Dr. Poorman wrote in a recent issue of Nursing Education Perspectives.

“Knowing this, I do not wait for students to come to me. I try to reach out to them. I send them e-mails to make appointments for special study sessions, to help them prepare for upcoming exams. When I am able to empower students to believe that they can attack their academic problems and successfully resolve them, it is a magical and uplifting experience.”

Hoping to understand more about students who are academically at risk, Dr. Poorman and colleagues then conducted studies on the experiences of students who struggle academically and the experiences of teachers who work with these students.

They found that, while evaluation is a challenge, it’s essential when working with at-risk students.

“I have seen that sometimes, the student’s struggle is greater when we, as educators, are not effective evaluators. Unfortunately, teachers are often pressed for time. We devote most of our time to preparing for class, which leaves little time to prepare high-quality assessments of learning.”

Promising work for struggling students and, certainly, promising news for the needs of the health care industry.

Dr. Poorman is just one example of IUP’s outstanding faculty members, who truly go the extra mile to help students succeed. She is among the inaugural fellows in the National League for Nursing and owns a small educational consulting firm, STAT Nursing Consultants, Inc., which employs five master’s and doctorally prepared nurse educators. The group helps students to reduce their anxiety and enhance their thinking skills on tests. She also has served as the advisor to IUP’s chapter of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania.

Celebrating Chemistry at Carnegie Science Center

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

For many years, IUP students and employees have enjoyed Wiener Wednesday in Weyandt Hall.

However, hot dog lovers might not have realized that the sales of hot dogs and related items by the IUP American Chemical Society student chapter is creating great opportunities for chemistry education.

Each year, the IUP student chapter–which was recently recognized by the national American Chemical Society as an Outstanding Student Chapter–donates $1,000 to area high school chemistry programs to promote science education and to interest students in studying chemistry. And, not only do the students and their advisor, Nathan McElroy, make the donation on site, they do “cool” chemistry experiments–complete with goggles, beakers, and foamy or “steaming” liquids.

Want to see them in action?

Seven IUP students and faculty member Justin Fair will be continuing their outreach efforts at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 22, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The program is free to those who pay admission to the center and open to all. So, if you’ve wondered what fluoride REALLY does to tooth enamel or how breakfast cereals are fortified with iron, here’s your chance to find out.

In addition to the fund-raising efforts, the students do free chemistry tutoring four nights a week for IUP students and do demonstrations throughout the community at local science fairs and recruiting events. All of these efforts have resulted in four national awards for excellence, counting this last recognition.

On Monday, the students will celebrate Mole Day. No, not the little squinty-eyed rodent, the basic measuring unit in chemistry, Avogadro’s number (6.02 x 10²³), with a bake sale at Weyandt Hall. Not to ruin the surprise, but I hear there will be cupcakes with atomic symbols. I won’t have a clue about the symbols, but a cupcake with icing can NEVER be wrong.

Dr. McElroy has an unusual understanding of the IUP Department of Chemistry–he is a very proud IUP Chemistry graduate!

But, he gives all the credit for the chapter’s success to the students.

“The Outstanding Chapter Award by the national ACS is a great honor for the club. I couldn’t be more proud of these students and of the exceptional work that they do for the department, the university, and the local community.”

Borrowed Babies, Revisited

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Regan Houser

Home Economics House 1953.jpg I was delighted to receive this photo from Theresa McDevitt, a Libraries faculty member, a few weeks ago. She sent it as a homecoming greeting, but she also knows that in 1995 I wrote a story for IUP Magazine about the Home Management House.

The story was called “Borrowed Babies,” and you can read it, thanks to an effort by the Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives Department. Harrison Wick and colleagues have made a decent effort to scan IUP publications of the past and make them accessible through Archive.org.

But, you probably chose to open this post because of its title, so let me explain. From the early 1910s to the 1960s, Home Economics majors at IUP had a semester-long immersion experience in Home Management House, which was located on a street that no long exists near Cogswell Hall. In addition to keeping the house in operation in the spirit of any modern-day domestic engineer, the students also cared for a baby lent to them by a nearby orphanage. Hence, the reference in the photo to Rodger–the baby who resided in Home Management House in fall, 1953 (Rodger says, “It’s time for a change. Beat California”). After the story ran in the magazine, we received many letters to the editor from alumnae who had nothing but wonderful things to say about the experience, who wondered what had happened to the babies they cared for, and who wanted to share their memories with others. Still, isn’t it difficult to believe?

Fast forward to 2011, and we all know things are quite different today. We no longer have a Home Economics Education major, per se, but instead several majors entailing Family and Child Studies and Family and Consumer Sciences Education, both housed in the Human Development and Environmental Studies Department. All you have to do is take a look at that website to know we focus on modern issues, employ modern techniques, and that we’re a long way from Home Management House.

If You Can’t Think of Something to Say, Just Offer Support

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Ms. Michelle S. Fryling

I like Facebook.

I enjoy seeing photos of my friends and my daughter away at college. And like it or not, Facebook has become a valuable tool for communications professionals. We use it here at IUP, my Quota club uses it, and it’s helpful.

I like checking my personal page, and I try VERY hard not to post things of the “Who cares?” variety. So, because my life is fairly uneventful, I don’t post all that often.

But I have wondered what to do when I see those posts that present information reflecting a lot of personal emotion: Passing of a parent. A fire. Loss of a job. Worry over the stock market and a 401K plunge postponing retirement FOREVER (oh wait–that’s me). Should I comment? What should I say?

IUP Psychology professor Krys Kaniasty to the rescue.

Even if you don’t know what to say, say something simple and direct, he advises.

And he should know.

Dr. Kaniasty has done extensive study on social support after natural disasters and trauma.

In fact, he was honored by the Stress and Anxiety Research Society with the Lifetime Career Award for his work. And, he just returned from the Australian Psychological Society Annual Conference in Canberra, where he was an invited keynote presenter on the topic of support for victims of natural disasters.

Earlier this year, he was asked by web editors from Gizmodo to offer advice on how people should respond to comments on social media to people affected by disasters–most recently, the Japanese tsunami.

For example, let’s say a Facebook friend and trauma survivor posts feelings that are of concern

“Don’t stay silent,” Kaniasty recommends in a posting titled “An Etiquette Guide to Tsunamis and Other Disasters.”

“Send a private message that says something to the effect of, ‘I just read your post. If you need to talk, I’m here for you.’ Make sure to include a phone number–sometimes people need to talk.”

Dr. Kaniasty is one of my favorite Psychology professors. He’s very active in his field, respected internationally for his work, and recently co-authored a review titled “Weighing the Costs of Disaster: Consequences, Risks, and Resilience in Individuals, Families, and Communities” in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

He’s a native of Poland, and is the author of a book about the 1997 Polish flood. (That publication is worthy of several blog entries alone. Check it out on his website.)

In terms of offering support, Dr. Kaniasty says in the posting that “you don’t have to be a talented clinician to be helpful. Most people aren’t looking for you to provide a solution; they’re looking for someone to listen.”

Good advice, both for Facebook and life.