UB Buzz

Technology vs. H1N1

Flu coverage in the media has gone from reporting on every new case to focusing on the debate over the vaccine. But college and university health centers are still dealing with sick students and preventing the virus from spreading further. Many are realizing digital thermometers aren’t the only technology at their disposal for coping with the situation.

“We hope it hits a level where cases fall off,” says Bruce Wright, executive director for health and counseling services Washington State University, which has had the highest reported number of infections. “I anticipate we’ll continue to see cases during the semester.”

At most higher ed institutions, faculty are being encouraged to be lenient when students are ill, not require doctor’s notes for absences, and make arrangements for students to catch up. WSU leaders are among those planning to leverage the campus’s existing lecture capture technology while the flu runs its course.

“Using Mediasite to capture lectures is a prominent part of our contingency plan, among a number of other things,” says Saleh Elgaidi, director of IT services for academics and research at WSU Spokane. “We are working with faculty to build an archive of rich classroom experiences that we can extend to students who become ill or if we have an outbreak and there is mandated social distancing.”

Looking Up

NASA crashed two probes into the moon this morning in an attempt to find water. The University of Puget Sound (Wash.) must be eagerly awaiting the results, considering their admissions office began a recruiting campaign in that region over the summer.
The university had a toe hold in the area through an incoming freshman’s father—American astronaut John Phillips.

(Photo Courtesy of Nasa. John Phillips at the window of the Space Shuttle Discovery with his University of Puget Sound cap. He is in the Japanese “Kibo” laboratory. Outside the window are the rest of us. [the earth!])

Phillips admitted his daughter Alli last fall and volunteered to take the college’s baseball cap with him on the Space Shuttle Discovery’s April 2009 flight to the International Space Station.  Phillips says the photo session ran slightly amock.

“The cap’s a ‘one size fits most,’ which doesn’t work well on my oversized orb, even with a skinhead
haircut,” he wrote in an email. “I have symptoms of space ‘pumpkinhead’ in both photos; for the first few days in orbit, you feel like you’re standing on your head, with a red and puffy face.”

Apparently the college’s colors of maroon and white travelled at up to 17,500 miles per hour, or ten times the speed of a rifle bullet. It spent 13 days in outer space, circling the earth 202 times.

Phillips, a NASA science officer and flight engineer, met Puget Sound Vice President for Enrollment George Mills in Houston when his Lillis Scholar daughter Alli Phillips ‘12 was interviewing to study molecular and cellular biology at Puget Sound.

Mills says, “This was my first opportunity to work with an astronaut parent. John’s suggestion that he take Puget Sound memorabilia into space was an exciting one since it would extend the reach of Puget Sound.”

The college is getting some earthly good out of this by posting the space photo on its Facebook page and in alumni magazine Arches. So far though, no new enrollment queries have come in from the virgin territory.

Summer Reading

It's that time of year. Although I've been out of school for many years, I will probably always associate summer with reading assignments. What do college presidents assign for themselves?

“When reading purely to relax I enjoy biographies. I suppose it might relate to my education and past work in theatre, but biographies allow me to wear other people’s skin for awhile. I find that can also be useful as president as well,” says Maravene Loeshcke, president of Mansfield University (Pa.). “This summer I hope to start with the biography of Andrew Jackson American Lion, the new book on Ted Kennedy and one on Ethel Merman.”

Here’s a sampling of some other brainy books college presidents plan to spend time with this season:

President Lex O. McMillan, Albright College (Pa.)

• Ike by Michael Korda
• The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
• American Lion by Jon Meacham
• Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
• The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Cooper Ramo

President Ray Ferrero, Nova Southeastern University (Fla.).:

• Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley
• The Prince of Darkness by Robert D. Novak
• The Last Lion: William Spencer Churchill by William Manchester

President Mike Maxey, Roanoke College (Va.):

• American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham
• Big Russ and Me by Timothy J. Russert
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• A Link among the Days; the Life and Times of the Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, the Father of Colonial Williamsburg by Dennis Montgomery. (Goodwin, an 1889 graduate of Roanoke College, began the effort to restore and preserve Williamsburg).

President Kim Phipps, Messiah College (Pa.):

• How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins
• Blue Ocean Strategies: How To Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Marborgne
• An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Bradford Taylor
• Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman

Any campus administrators up for sharing their own to-read lists for the summer?

A Supportive Sidekick

Most people recognize Ed McMahon as the longtime sidekick of "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson and as a pitchman. Quinnipiac University (Conn.) has a personal connection to McMahon, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 86.
He had supported the university since his daughter Linda attended in late 1970s. According to a release on Quinnipiac's website, McMahon gave a donation in 1993 that led to the creation of a topnotch media production facility. The Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center provides hands-on training in all aspects of radio, television, journalism and multimedia production.
Alumni and friends of the university are being encouraged to post thoughts and memories of McMahon on the discussion board on the university's School of Communications Facebook page.

We Can Rebuild It

As the push to get more people to drive alternative energy vehicles continues, the question should be ask—who is going to fix these electric and hybrid cars when they start to break down.
Instructors at community and technical colleges have been training these new mechanics for several years.
In a good example of recycling, student in the Alternative Fuels program at Ohio Technical College converted a 1997 Ford van to run on electric power, complete with solar panels to recharge the batteries.
In addition to receiving a new drive train and systems, the “Electro-Van” was spruced up with a new, green paint job.
The next student project will be converting a 1982 Mercedes to run on bio-diesel.
Learn more about campus efforts to make transportation more environmentally responsible in the June 2009 and June 2008 issues of UB.

Virginia Tech: Remembering, But Moving Forward

On Friday, less than a week before the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy, the west wing of the second floor of Norris Hall, where the shootings took place, reopened. Administrators were smart to create a new look for the approximately 4,300-square-foot space, as well as to use part of it for the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.

"When we began considering what the future would hold for this section of Norris Hall, we wanted to, first and foremost, honor and respect the memories of those we lost and those who loved them, and honor and respect those who survived the tragedy," said Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee, in an announcement about the reopening.

The Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics as well as the peace and violence prevention center are occupying six new rooms and laboratories, as well as a teleconferencing center and meeting and administrative space. The space also includes the IDEAS Undergraduate Learning Center, a biomechanics laboratory, and the Biomechanics Cluster Research Center.

The wife of Jerzy Nowak, founding director of the peace studies center, was one of the 32 people killed. In the announcement about the reopening, he said that the center will "develop transdisciplinary programs that target prevention of violence through research, education and engagement," adding that "relocation to Norris Hall has a symbolic character to the families and friends of the victims, to the survivors, to Virginia Tech, the Blacksburg community, and the world."

The renovations of the space, which were based on recommendations from a university task force, cost approximately $1 million, with several individuals and building contractors donating goods and/or services to support the project.

As the community continues to heal, the academic mission of the university will carry on.

Institutional Taglines on Web

Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency, a South Bend, Ind.-based marketing consultancy specializing in higher education and other nonprofits, has done the collecting so you don't have to. Its just-launched database of more than 3.500 college and university taglines is searchable by school or keyword, and institutions can add or edit their taglines.

“Our clients rely on our expertise to capture the distinctive character of their organization , and to coherently communicate what makes each one of them unique,” says Rick Bailey, principal of RHB/The Agency. “While we understand that not every college or university utilizes its tagline as a driving force for messaging, we are interested in discovering, archiving, and examining the words and phrases higher education institutions use to describe themselves as a means of continuing to produce the very best work on behalf of our clients.”

HigherEdTaglines.com also houses relevant reading recommendations on taglines and their role in marketing institutions of higher education, including a perspective paper titled “Taglines are Dead."

Not to pick on anyone, but as an editor who avoids using the word "unique" because nothing ever really is, I couldn't help but notice that five institutions use that word in their taglines. Another thing of note: Despite the economic situation, none of the collected taglines include the words "affordable" or "value." So perhaps there's a unique idea for someone?

And in case you missed it, the December 2008 University Business article "50 Best Branding Ideas" features lots of ideas on how to use taglines and other tactics to create and implement branding campaigns. Check it out here.

Big Dig at New Law School Site

Workers at the construction site for the future Thomas Jefferson School of Law (Calif.) have been turning up, or better to say digging up, some amazing prehistoric finds in a half-city block location.
The latest: the bones of a giant sloth.
The fossils are the third in a succession of remains discovered at the East Village site in downtown San Diego. Kicked off in October, the $68 million project will result in a new high rise, state-of-the-art home for the law school, scheduled to be open during the 2010-2011 academic year.
On February 3, the skull, two tusks, foot and legs bones of a Columbian Mammoth, estimated to be about 500,000 years old were found, were found in the site's southeast corner according to a San Diego Union Tribune article. Just over 20 days later, the jaw, shoulder blade, neck bone and upper spine of a baleen whale dating possibly 600,000 years old, was discovered in the same spot, right above the other creature, with 10 feet of earth between them.
School officials signed a contract with a paleontological firm to be on site for the excavation, says spokesperson Chris Saunders. Workmen had to dig around the area of the two findings, but they were able to continue with minimal delay.
The school's website lists updates about the project's progression.
The latest set of bones, part of the sloth's vertebra and tooth and skull fragments, were unearthed in a different part of the property last Friday. All three animals date from the Pleistocene Period -- the Ice Age.

Course Catalog: A Tree Grows in Huntsville

Art can bring people together in a variety of ways.
For the second year, the International Fiber Collaborative will allow people from around the world to reflect on how we are all connected by contributing leaves for a tree which will be displayed in Huntsville, Alabama, in April 2009.
The theme is "Interdependence" and "Much like a live tree is interdependent
on its leaves and roots for survival, societies are interdependent on the greater whole, family units, communities, and countries" the website explains.
The environmental aspects of our interdependence is reflected in the fact that many people are contributing leaves made of recycled materials, explains founder Jennifer Marsh.
What does this have to do with higher ed?
The project is being managed by the students in Marsh's Public Art/Professional Practices Class the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
In addition to building the tree, students are using their personal strengths to support the project by generating publicity, funding, etc. "One student has strong graphic design skills and has designed letter head," Marsh explains.
The hands on work will probably look good on their resumes and the tree should look good when it is put on display.
Leaves are being accepted until March 15. Information on how to participate is available on the project website.

Kansas State Freshmen Get Their Wish

It's all over Twitter and various blogs: Juicy Campus, the website best known for allowing users to post gossip anonymously is closing down because of lack of revenue.
A news item in the February 09 issue of UB reported on a survey at Kansas State University that explored freshmen students' experiences with bullying and cyberbullying.
Responding to a question asking "Common cyberbullying I have personally encountered this school year includes" many students wrote in comments relating to Juicy Campus and indicating it "needs to be stopped." (17 percent experienced cyberbullying through cell phone calls or text messages, but 64 percent indicated they had not personally encountered cyberbullying.)
“Bullying typically requires an audience,” explained Elaine Johannes, an assistant professor of family studies and human services at K-State and lead researcher on the survey. "It is relevant in middle school and levels off around 10th grade."
So while the K-State freshmen breath a sigh of relief, maybe the fall of this gossip website is a chance for everyone to focus on acting a little more grown-up online.