Volume 30, No. 3
September 4, 1998
Scott A. Miller
Contact: Scott A. Miller 662-4844
NEWS
An Open Letter to the Mansfield University Community
As many of you know, school starts Tuesday, September 8, for the students in the Southern Tioga School District. This year, however, the venue for seventh and eighth graders will be a bit different. Since the Junior High School renovations will not be completed next week, these seventh and eighth graders will begin their education at Mansfield University.
We developed a lease agreement (yes, for $1) with the Southern Tioga School District to enable these students to begin classes in Alumni Hall for the first month or so of the academic year. Approximately 300 students and 15 teachers and staff will occupy the vacant second and third floors. When the Superintendent and his staff began talking with us a couple weeks ago, we were fortunate to have this facility available to utilize for a limited time this fall term.
As good neighbors and recognizing the importance of K-12 and higher education partnerships in this community, we were pleased to offer this alternative which was approved by the School Board one week ago. The agreement has, of course, been reviewed and approved by our legal counsel in the SSHE and signed by the Attorney General and parties from STSD and Mansfield University.
I can assure you from being at a meeting with school personnel and new students this past week that the Principal and his staff are taking every step to provide proper supervision and a positive learning environment. In addition, this arrangement will have no impact upon a favorite subject: parking (students will be bused to and from school and shuttle vans available for extenuating circumstances). Nor will occupancy of the second and third floors of Alumni Hall delay our schedule for renovating these floors later this year for student union facilities--a project which is a high priority and is expected to be completed during the Fall of 1999.
Please join me in welcoming these young people and their teachers to our campus. Whether it is for a month or two, it is an opportunity to extend our learning environment to the larger community of which we are an important part. Perhaps some of these junior high students will be our future college students.
Sincerely,
John R. Halstead
President
Lecture series to offer history, learning, debate
MU's Fall Lecture Series will stimulate learning and stir debate on topics ranging from the underground railroad of the 1860s to battles for student press freedom and personal privacy in the new millennium.
The series opens Wednesday, Sept. 16, when MU English professor Bernard Koloski presents "Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Our Times." Chopin's 1890s novel reflects 1990s battles over sex, race, ethnicity, freedom, and community. Condemned in its own time, ignored for 60 years, acclaimed in the 1970s and 1980s, the book is today again controversial. The Awakening makes succeeding generations of Americans uncomfortable.
On Sept. 23, Nilgun Anadolu Okur, assistant professor of African American history and literature at Temple University will present "Pennsylvania's Underground Railroad." The Underground Railroad was a series of secret routes and hiding places abolitionists used to help slaves escape. Philadelphia was a center for its operations, and many of its most important stations were in the counties of Pennsylvania. Dr. Okur's slide-illustrated talk covers the passages, inns, and isolated private homes in the woods used by the escaping slaves. As a bonus, the MU orchestra strings will perform two slave songs prior to the talk. The songs are from "Colonial Williamsburg Odyssey," written by MU music professor Kenneth Sarch. Okur is a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. The lecture is cosponsored by the Mansfield Public Library.
On Oct. 7, Robert Ellis Smith, editor of "Privacy Journal" (Providence, RI) and author of "Workrights, Our Vanishing Privacy" will present "How to Protect What's Left of Your Privacy." Nationally recognized as one of the most outspoken advocates for privacy, Smith describes threats posed by credit reports, medical information, the Internet, and electronic surveillance. He offers tips for regaining your sense of personal privacy in the new Millennium.
On Oct. 21, Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington D.C. will present "Student Journalism in the New Millennium: The Battle for Press Freedom Continues." Since the Supreme Court's 1988 Hazelwood decision gave secondary school officials greater ability to restrict the student media, censorship of both high school and college student journalists has been rampant. But new technology and changing attitudes suggest the next few years may bring a whole new battle, one that could affect the future of free expression in America. This lecture sponsored in part by Student Activities Office and Mansfield Activities Council, which is funded by Student Activities Fees.
On Nov. 4 , history and political science professor Al Dalmolen, will speak on "Indonesia in Turmoil." For the second time in 30 years the world's fourth largest country is undergoing a violent change of regimes. Once again, students and others have taken to the streets in a prolonged process that will be carefully watched in Asia and the United States. Dalmolen has studied Indonesia for many years and attended a Fulbright-Hays Seminar there in 1991.
On Nov. 11. MU biology faculty member John M. Kirby will give "An analysis of reptile subaqueous trace fossils from the Moenkopi Formation of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah." For the past four years, with a paleontologist at IUP, Kirby has been describing and interpreting the swimming marks left in sandstone by extinct reptiles while they were swimming in ancient rivers of southern Utah. Studying these swimming traces has provided information about the mechanics of the aquatic locomotion employed by these extinct reptiles and has helped us to better understand the paleoenvironment of the early Triassic Period in the southwest United States.
All lectures are on Wednesdays beginning at 4 p.m. in Manser Hall's North Dining Room. The Nov. 4 lecture by Dalmolen is in 204 Memorial Hall.
The lecture series is sponsored by the MU Provost's Office.
Have an Updater announcement? Send it to Scott A. Miller
The Pennsylvania State Education Association's Web page (http://www.psea.org) features the 1998 Public Mind survey results dealing with education issues. The survey is coordinated Richard Feil, psychology, and Gale Largey, social work, sociology and anthropology.
Margaret Launius, psychology, published a book review in the May 1998 issue of the "Pennyslvania Psychologist." She reviewed the book "The Moral Animal: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology" by Robert Wright. Launius also presented a workshop titled "Women's Leadership: Power and Personality" in August at the State System of Higher Education's Leadership Institute. Launius recently launched a web site for her courses and related topics, which can be viewed at http://www.mnsfld.edu/~mlaunius.
Robert Amchin, music, led the Orff Certification course at Mansfield this summer. The following week, he was guest lecturer at James Madison University as the recorder and movement specialist for the Orff Certification program there. He plans to continue to be active teaching both courses again next summer.
The men's and women's cross-country teams open their 1998 seasons at SUNY-Brockport Saturday, Sept. 5.
The baseball team played its annual 100-inning baseball game Sunday, Aug. 30. Mountie squad A outlasted the B squad by a score of 19-16. This year's event featured the use of all wood bats. R. J. Lee led the way for the A squad with two homers.
This page is maintained by Scott A. Miller.