Volume 29, No. 2
August 29, 1997
Scott A. Miller
Contact: MU PR Office 662-4844
NEWS
New shuttle service debuts
Nearly two years of work have culminated in a new, low-cost campus shuttle service that will make it easier and safer for students to navigate campus, as well as travel from campus to shopping areas in Mansfield, Corning and Elmira.
The Mountie Express, a joint project of the university and the Endless Mountains Transportation Authority (EMTA), features three scheduled runs and costs students just 25 cents per ride with MU ID or $5 per semester for unlimited usage. The $5 pass also allows access to all other EMTA bus routes in Tioga and Bradford counties.
"We're broadened the scope of the shuttle to improve the link between the campus and the community," said Joseph Maresco, vice president for student affairs. "We worked with the chamber of commerce to have some of the routes extend to part of the community to make it more convenient for students to get to businesses there."
According to Dave Turisini, EMTA director, funding for initial year of the shuttle service was provided in part by a grant to EMTA from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Continuing the program, he says, will depend on campus interest and support.
"We're in the process of educating the students and have posted shuttle schedules at most of the major stops," Turisini said. "The campus has not had a service like this so communicating to the students is going to be a key to its success."
The weekday morning classroom shuttle runs continuously from 7:10 a.m.-12:33 p.m. It includes stops at Parking Lot C, Cedarcrest, Maple, Manser, College Avenue and South Academy Street, Simon Elliott Hall, Straughn Drive and Swan Street, Parking Lot E, Parking Lots K, L and R, All Hall, Decker Gymnasium and Steadman Theatre, Parking Lot T, Belknap Hall and Retan Center
The weekday afternoon shuttle runs continuously from 1-6:53 p.m. It includes stops at Parking Lot C, Cedarcrest, Maple, Manser, College Avenue and South Academy Street, Simon Elliott Hall, Straughn Drive and Swan Street, Tri-County Rural Electric Parking Lot, Bilo Shopping Plaza, Central and North Main streets, Mansfield Motel, Maple Lanes, Wal-Mart Park and Ride, Arby's, Peiking Chinese Restaurant and First Citizen's National Bank.
The daily evening shuttle runs from 8-11:30 p.m. except on Friday and Saturday when operations continue until 1:30 a.m. It includes stops at Parking Lot C, Cedarcrest, Maple, Manser, Simon Elliott Hall, Parking Lot E, Parking Lot T, Decker Gymnasium, and Parking Lots K, L and R.
A shuttle to Market Street in Corning and the Arnot Mall will leave Manser Hall each Saturday at 11 a.m. and return at 4 p.m. All rides on the this shuttle are free.
The Saturday "Mall Express" will include stops at Market Street in Corning and the Arnot Mall in Big Flats, NY. The shuttle will depart Manser Hall at 11 a.m., travel to the mall and shut down for three hours. The route will restart at 3 p.m. at the mall and follow the same route on its return to campus.
Seats on the Mall Express will be given on a first-come, first-served basis according to a sign-up sheet in the Student Activities Office, Memorial Hall. The deadline for sign-up is noon each Friday. The cost for the service is still just 25 cents per ride for those with MU ID or $5 per semester for unlimited usage. EMTA representative Ben Shaw says the service will monitor the popularity of the Mall Express and, if warranted, add a second shuttle.
Unlimited Mountie Express passes are available at Three C's Styling Salon, Maple Lanes, Core States Bank, Mansfield Chamber of Commerce, Campus Police and the Office of Student Affairs.
To request more information on the EMTA bus service, send e-mail to Turisini at emtbus@cyber-quest.com.
Storytelling Festival brings back old favorites
This year's Northern Appalachian Storytelling Festival at Mansfield University will feel like Old Home Days for performers and fans. Four of this year's five storytellers have performed on the Straughn stage in previous years and are back to help celebrate the 17th anniversary of the Festival Sept. 12-13.
Jay O'Callahan, who Time Magazine calls a "genius among storytellers," left his job as dean of a private school to become a storyteller. For five years he made about $10 a year. Today he has performed around the world and is hailed by critics as "a virtuoso." He explores such age-old themes as love, death, and coming of age, but the common thread is the indomitable human spirit. He develops many of his own stories, based on people and times around his Marshfield, MA, home.
Critics and listeners call his performances powerful, citing O'Callahan's "ability to connect with an audience that is electrifying." He is also a featured storyteller on National Public Radio. He was last here in 1992.
Midwesterner Jim May last visited the NASF in 1993. The Emmy Award winner often includes horse trading stories he learned from his father and stories swapped in his grandfather's general store, as well as other examples of midwest humor and folk tradition that he absorbed during his childhood in McHenry County, Illinois.
May, a former teacher, began telling stories in his classroom as a supplement to his language program. In 1984 he cofounded and directed The Illinois Storytelling Festival, an annual event that draws thousands of listeners. His many years as an elementary school teacher, college counselor/instructor and consultant enable him to reach audiences of all ages and life situations.
The Chicago Sun Times dubbed May a "modern day Homer."
As a child, New Orleans native Diane Ferlatte listened to her grandparents' stories of family generations past, their spirit, their journeys and their heartfelt fantasies. The Oakland-based storyteller became interested in the craft as a way to lessen her children's interest in television. She found that storytelling helps stir the imagination and promotes reading readiness and literacy.
While she weaves tales from many cultures, her favorites are African, Southern and African-American. She's been a featured performer at the annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN and the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts as part of President Clinton's Inauguration. Storytelling is like soul food, she says. "It helps and heals and brings so much pleasure!" Ferlatte performed here in 1992.
Robin Moore tells traditional and original stories from his roots in the Pennsylvania mountains. His intimate knowledge of the woods and the haunting sounds he produces from traditional musical instruments bring to life his North American and Celtic tales. NASF audiences will love Moore's stories of hound dogs and rattlesnakes, wild men and hairy women, headless ghosts and howling wolves. A professional storyteller since 1981, Moore last appeared at NASF in 1993.
He is the author of several books for children and adults, including a volume on how to build a storytelling tradition in one's family. Moore feels the most important task of today's storyteller is to teach the nation to dream again.
New to the Festival this year is New England storyteller Susan Klein. Klein grew up in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, thinking the entire world was composed of islands with own merry-go-rounds. She earned a master's degree in education, taught on the Vineyard and founded the Festival of Storytelling on Martha's Vineyard held each June. Today she teaches storytelling throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Klein's repertoire includes selections from the world body of folklore and myth, literary stories, audience participation stories for children, rites of passage and love stories.
Storyteller Dan Keding praises Klein's stories which contain "urgency and playfulness." "Those that are playful still contain elements of urgency; and those that are arresting and intense always have a bit of the playful."
Tickets for the Friday and Saturday are $7 general, $6 for students and seniors. Tickets for the Friday night ghost story show is $3 for everyone. Saturday afternoon shows are $5 for everyone. The Sunday morning Sacred Storytelling session is free.
In addition to performances, Jay O'Callahan will conduct a two-day workshop for young storytellers and teachers on Thursday & Friday, Sept.11-12. Tuition is $135. Robin Moore and Jim May will offer master classes at $35 each or $60 for both.
Call 4781 for information or reservations, or visit the Festival web site at www.mnsfld.edu/depts/storytel.
"Works on Paper" in University Gallery
The University Gallery is hosting a mixed media exhibit of landscapes, still life and pattern designs entitled "Works on Paper" through Sept. 26 by artist Aleta Yarrow of Cowanesque, PA.
As a girl, Yarrow learned the skills of sewing, quilting, embroidery and tapestry from the women of her small Pennsylvania home town. From these folk roots, her love of color and pattern evolved and they are reflected in her current work as a watercolorist and collage artist.
In addition to being a freelance artist, Yarrow is an educator, having taught at elementary schools, prison, technical college, museum and Elderhostel. She has also conducted residencies in public school for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and been involved with the MU Summer Camp for Gifted, Talented and Creative Students for the past two years.
In the last decade, she has exhibited at Gettysburg College, Lock Haven University, the Arnot Art Museum, and the Lycoming County Historical Museum. Her work is also represented in the private galleries of the West End Gallery in Corning, NY, and B&S Gallery in Williamsport.
A gallery reception for the artist will be held Thursday, Sept. 11, from 7-9 p.m. in the University Gallery, North Hall.
The exhibit and reception are sponsored by the university's Fine Arts Committee and Student Government Association.
Kenneth Sarch, music, invites orchestral players to join the MU Symphony Orchestra this season. The first semester repertory features an American music festival with two guest visiting composers as well as works by Copland and Macdowell. The orchestra rehearses Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. in Butler Music Center with the first full orchestra rehearsal on Sept. 3. There are openings in several sections particularly violin, viola, cello and bass. For information call Sarch at 4716.
Have an Updater announcement? Send it to Scott A. Miller
Jay Gertzman, English, has been selected as a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council for 1998-99. His topics will be "Immigrant Jews in Urban America: The Middleman Minority" and "‘Bookleggers' of the Twenties: The Marketing and Censorship of ‘Dirty Books.'"
Congratulations to Bernie Sabol, health and physical education, who was inducted in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, Aug. 24, in Harrisburg. A 1959 graduate of Coal Township High School, Sabol was a football, wrestling and track standout for the Demons. A member of the football team for four seasons, Sabol captained the squad his senior year. He was named to both AP and UPI All-State honors as well as high school All-American recognition and was selected to the Pennsylvania Big 33 team. After graduation, Sabol accepted a scholarship to Penn State University, where he lettered three years at linebacker and guard. He earned three letters under Coach Rip Engle, playing in two Gator Bowls and a Liberty Bowl. Chosen as the Nittany Lions "Outstanding Senior Player," Sabol was also an All-East selection his final season at Penn State.