The Harbinger
September 10, 2007
Annual Employee Recognition Dinner
The 20th Annual Employee Recognition Celebration will be held on Thursday, September 13, at the Coleman Sports Center. The reception starts at 5 p.m. in the DeGirolamo Lobby and the dinner at 5:45 p.m. in the Martin Fieldhouse.
The faculty and staff to be honored for years of service are:
5 years of service
Colin Anderson, Jill Corbett, Bryan Drennen, Tricia Fincham, Jennifer Miller, Tom Mulligan, Peggy Painley, Sandy Pettry, Bree Semplak, Beverly Sorrick, Lynda Tayerle, Xinlu Yu, and Liz Zerucha
10 years of service
Caroline Gray, Vicki Kohn, Lynn Kostrab, Lou Lanese, Candy Painley, Lisa Schneider, Barb Wood and Dave Yeagley
15 years of service
Susan Griggs, Bonnie Richardson and Detra West
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| Bonnie Richardson | Dee West |
20 years of service
Linda Bourassa, Virginia Buchanan, Randy Fusco, and Denise Sadler
25 years of service
Nozar Alaolmolki, Michael Corr, and Kathryn Craig
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Nozar Alaolmolki |
Mike Corr |
Kathryn Craig |
30 years of service
John Cragel and Rosanne Factor
40 years of service
Freida Goldman and Andy Konick
Recipients of the following awardsalso will be honored. Service Recognition, Michael Starr Award, Vencl-Carr Award, Nancy L. Moeller Outstanding Achievement Commendation for Staff, and the G.A. Sywassink Award.
Reception and dinner music will be provided by Cadlelight Entertainment.
The play Sarah's Daughter comes to Hiram
Hiram College will present performances of the play Sarah's Daughters by Canadian physician-playwright Jeff Nisker at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 28, and Saturday, September 29, in the Frohring Art Building.
Hiram senior theater major, Kelly Hanahan, will play the role of a woman who lives for 20 years in fear of developing her mother’s breast cancer, and Hiram cellist Emma Strong will accompany her. The play explores the many personal and family issues of breast cancer, and the genetic inheritance of strong susceptibility to the disease.
The performances are part of Stages: Cancer and the Arts, a fall series presented by The Center for Literature, Medicine, and Biomedical Humanities, one of the College’s six Centers of Excellence.
Nisker is Coordinator of Health Ethics and Humanities and Professor of Obstetrics-Gynaecology and Oncology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario (UWO). His research is transdisciplinary, centering on public engagement for health-policy development, particularly regarding emerging genetic technologies. Similarly, his educational initiatives embrace the humanities and social sciences, such as in his narrative bioethics and health ethics through film courses.
Nisker has written many scientific articles and book chapters, as well as six plays and several short stories to explore health issues and encourage compassion in health care. His plays have been performed throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. Nisker has previously participated in several programs of the Center for Literature, Medicine, and Biomedical Humanities
During convocation at noon on Thursday, October 4, Nisker will discuss the use of theater to raise audience awareness of health care issues that may impact their lives. He will refer not only to Sarah's Daughters but also to his play Orchids, which is about pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) that allows prospective parents to select for embryos that do not carry certain genetic diseases. That play, performed across Canada, helped the government determine what its public policy would be about PGD.
Creative Field Studies Program wins award
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Martin Huehner |
The Hiram College Creative Field Studies Program has won the higher education 2007 Northeast Ohio Environmental Award sponsored by Dominion and Biodiversity Alliance.
The Creative Field Studies (CFS) Program, which is the only program of its kind in the United States, will be honored during the Northeast Ohio Environment Awards Ceremony at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Murch Auditorium on Friday, October 5. The program is directed by Martin Huehner.
Until recently Huehner was professor of art and co-director of environmental studies at Hiram College. He remains an adjunct professor but is now senior scientist with EnviroScience, Inc.
"Hiram’s Creative Field Studies Program provides students with a very different way of learning about the environment," Huehner said. "It is not tied to course work but is a real means of professional development."
The program encourages interdisciplinary study of specific environment issues that can be of a global or regional nature. By involving participants from different disciplines (art, creative writing, ecology, environment studies, geology, etc.) in critical evaluation and creative expression of regional nature, natural resources, and environmental issues, CFS has been able to produce a biennial CFS exhibition (Landscapes, 2004 and Forested Landscapes, 2006) featuring oil paintings, ceramics, textiles, photography, sculpture, poetry, and musical compositions. The next exhibition will be The Shores, 2008.
Kathy Feather, dean of the College, said in nominating the program for the first Northeast Ohio Environmental Award that "CFS provides participants with an enhanced sense of place that is critical to environmental citizenship. Participants develop their critical evaluation and creative expression capacities and become more aware of how the environmental system works and what their role in nature is."
The CFS Program is part of the College’s Center for the Study of Nature and Society, which is one of Hiram’s six Centers of Excellence.
"Creative Field Studies has produced artists informed about the environment rather than simply whimsical representations of nature," Huehner said. "The recognition is tremendous for the College and the program."
The award includes a $2,500 prize.
Grand Opening of Gelbke Art Center
For the past few weeks movers have been delivering furniture and equipment from
the Frohring Art building to the new Gelbke Art Center, as painters and other craftsmen finish last minute details. The new Art Center features an art gallery, faculty offices, photography dark rooms, an art history lecture hall and seminar room, an area for digital art, ceramics and sculpture facilities, print making and design areas, and classrooms.
On Monday, September 10, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., the Gelbke Fine Arts Center host have an open house. President Tom Chema invites everyone to "welcome the fall semester" by walking the new path through the woods leading down the hill to the Gelbke Art Center. Members of the art department will be on hand to provide mini tours of the classrooms and studios. Refreshments will be served.
When the walkway pictured on the left is completed, it will connect to the sidewalk on Garfield Road (State Route 700) north of Booth Centennial.
Visiting entrepreneur speaks to database design class
Jim Cossler and Eric Parker launched Hiram College’s fall entrepreneurship program – E.Integration@Hiram – by speaking on September 7 to students in Professor of Computer Science Ellen Walker’s database design course.
Cossler, director of the Youngstown Business Incubator, which, according to Professor Stephen L. Zabor, director of E.Integration@Hiram, is a highly regarded business-to-business software development incubator, has agreed to be a member of the advisory board of the College’s entrepreneurship program.
Parker is a founding partner and principle owner of Zethus Software. For 13 years, Parker worked for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. after graduating from The College of Wooster with a degree in physics. Parker’s business is housed in the Youngstown Business Incubator where it receives support from the other businesses located there and from incubator employees.
Parker shared with Walker’s class his insights about both starting one’s own business and about software development.
The Hiram entrepreneurship program is funded, in part, by a $1-million grant from The Burton D. Morgan and The Ewing Marion Kauffman foundations.
Hiram College to host first Run for Grace and Andy
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Grace Chamberlain |
The inaugural Run for Grace and Andy on Hiram’s three-mile square Sept. 29 will celebrate the lives of Grace Chamberlain and Andy Hopkins, Hiram College students who died in March 2006 after their vehicle was struck by a drunken driver with eleven previous DUI convictions.
The College, where Hopkins and Chamberlain were first-year students, also will put on a one-mile fun walk in Hiram Village that will not be timed. The walk will begin after the 8:30 a.m.
race start. Proceeds from the event will go into the Fund for Grace and Andy and will be used to fund the College’s Andrew Hopkins Music Award and the Grace J. Chamberlain Prize in Creative Writing.
Hiram also sponsors the Chamberlain-Hopkins Symposium on Alcohol and Culture, with the second symposium now being planned for the spring of 2008. The goal of the symposium and the run are to raise community awareness – in different ways – concerning alcohol’s influence in our culture.
"We do want the run to be a joy for participants," said Grace’s father, Bob Chamberlain, who has been among Chamberlain and Hopkins family members helping to plan the event. "Grace and Andy loved Hiram because it was so full of life. That’s what we want from this event – a
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Andy Hopkins |
celebration of life."
Each entrant in 12 age categories will receive a T-shirt and refreshments. Awards will be given to the best overall male and female runners and to the top two finishers in each age category.
Entry fees are $15 per person for early registration and $20 on race day. Details about pre-race registration can be found at: www.Hermescleveland.com. Registration will begin on race day at 7 a.m. at the Coleman Sports, Fitness and Recreation Center on the Hiram campus. Group and family discounts also are offered.
Hiram students representing residence halls and campus groups, including ID3 (I Don’t Drink and Drive) are expected to participate. ID3 was formed by Evan DaSilva, who was seriously injured in the accident that claimed the lives of Grace and Andy, and other Hiram students.
Professor Lynn Underwood presents paper in Greece
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Lynn Underwood |
Hiram College Professor of Biomedical Humanities Lynn Underwood will present a paper at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, Greece, during an international conference on September 20 - 24.
The paper, titled "The Human Person: Possibilities for Flourishing in Dire Circumstances," concerns the "implications for actions that we might take to improve the lives of those in dire circumstances, help us to learn from these situations, and also better handle dire circumstances when we encounter them ourselves." The paper incorporates fiction, poetry, and the visual arts. There are plans for a published book based on this project.
The conference will examine how the sciences, philosophy, and Orthodox theology can mutually inform our understanding of the human person in ways that may prove practical for policy and action. Many of Underwood’s European colleagues, representing a wide array of academic disciplines, will also participate in the conference.
The conference is being supported by both the National Hellenic Research Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.
Biographies of Education that Works Conference participants are available on Hiram Web site
The third annual Education that Works Conference, which brings together Hiram College students, faculty, and alumni to discuss specific examples of how a liberal arts education is an ideal vehicle for entry into the workplace, will be held on Thursday, September 27, and Friday, September 29.
The schedule and short biographies of more than 50 alumni and friends who are participating appears on the Hiram College Web site at http://www.hiram.edu/etwc/.
Participants will take part in classes and informal group gatherings with students throughout the two-day conference. Students and faculty may request time with one or more participants by contacting the Office of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at 330-569-5283 or alumnirel@hiram.edu.
Karen Donley-Hayes hired as College editor
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Karen Donley-Hayes |
Karen Donley-Hayes has joined the office of college relations College as College Editor. From a large and strong field of candidates, Karen emerged as not only a skilled editor and writer but also as a person with the personality and maturity to fit in well at the College.
Karen comes to Hiram from Advanstar Communications, where she has been a senior editor. In addition, she gained experience in deciphering technical topics while at Penske Logistics Technology. She also is a talented personal essayist whose work has been published in publications as diverse as the Journal of the American Medical Association and Horse Illustrated.
A graduate of the College (B.A. in English; M.A.I.S.), Karen has a rich background in the Hiram community. She and husband Arnold '86 live in Garrettsville. Karen can be reached at 330-569-5291 and donleykl@hiram.edu.
Professor Brad Goodner at Library Forum
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Brad Goodner |
Brad Goodner presented the first Library Forum of the academic year on Wednesday, September 5 at 4:15 p.m. in the Pritchard Room of the Library. Dr. Goodner spoke on "Hiram's HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) Grant to Hiram College, being a $1.2 million opportunity spread over four years. Using research as a teaching tool and fostering more biomedical research on campus is the grant's intention. Goodner, program director of the HHMI grant, gave a talk entitled "A Review and a Look Forward." What lead up to the
grant, its goals and objectives, and how Hiram College wants to expand by applying for a $1.6 million grant September 1, 2008, was discussed. There are 220 colleges competing for this grant; forty institutions will be selected.
Music department offers African Drum instruction
Olu Manns, an adjunct faculty member and African Drum maker, 
is offering a one -credit-hour ensemble course on African drum music - MUSI 815. In addition to African drums, other percussion instruments will be studied including claves and African rattles. The course will be held in Frohring Music 109 on Monda from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for beginners and from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for students with at least one semester of experience. Olu was recommended by our longtime drummer John Spuzzillo. Instruments provided or bring your own, said Tina Driesbach, music department chair.
The Circle Drum group will join the Hiram College Jazz Ensemble for a concert on November 14, 2007, at 7:30 p.m.
This week at a glance
Monday, September 10
Red Cross blood drive at Kennedy Center
Gelbke Art Center open house - 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
ATP - 4:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Football - JV - away game at John Carroll
Impact Peer Mentor Training - 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, September 11
Teach-In - on the Campus green - noon to 1:50 p.m.
CESC - 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Wednesday, September 12
Men's Soccer - Adrian College - 5:30 p.m.
Women's Soccer - Adrian College - 3:30 p.m.
Volleyball - College of Wooster - 7 p.m.
Thursday, September 13
Employee Recognition Dinner - reception 5 p.m. in the DeGirolamo Lobby; dinner at 5:45 p.m. in the Martin Fieldhouse.
Volleyball at College of Wooster - noon
Community Service Fair
Friday, September 14
Kiwanis Spaghetti Dinner at Kennedy Center - 6 p.m.
Saturday, September 15
Men's soccer - Wash. & Jeff. - 1 p.m.
Volleyball - Marymount (VA) University - noon
Cross Country - Penn State
Football - Allegheny (PA) College - 1 p.m.
Sunday, September 16
Men's Soccer - at Hilbert College (NY) - 1 p.m.
Terrier Athletics
http://www.hiram.edu/athletics/index.html
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