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    • August 21, 2006

The Harbinger

August 21, 2006

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President of AICUO delivered keynote at Opening Assembly

C. Todd Jones, president and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio, shared several educational concerns with faculty and staff during the College’s Opening Assembly on Friday, August 18.

Jones urged the Hiram College community to become knowledgeable on three issues and to be prepared to respond. The issues are:

• The Learn and Earn Initiative – The Ohio Learn and Earn Committee supports placing 31,500 slot machines at seven Ohio race tracks and casinos that would be permitted in Cleveland. Jones said the committee proposes that 30 percent of the gambling profit would fund scholarships at Ohio’s public and private institutions of higher education. Learn and Earn promises nearly $1 billion a year in scholarships. “This would be a shift from public sector funding of higher education to funding by a gambling system,” Jones said. “You need to make yourself aware of this as a vote is held.” Learn and Earn officials say the committee has submitted about 270,000 more signatures than required to be on the November ballot.

• The Spellings Commission Report – By an 18-1 vote the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education has approved a report and submitted it to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. The report contains recommendations concerning access, student financial aid, accountability, quality improvement, lifelong learning, and global competitiveness. Among the recommendations is one that alarms Jones because, he says, it would, in the process of creating greater transparency regarding student success, make student information available via a national database. Some of the information, Jones said, can be embarrassing. “You should find out why you should be outraged,” he said. “It’s Pandora’s Box and once the bell is rung, it cannot be unrung.” The report can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html
  

• In the campaign for governor between Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, Jones says “the candidates have not made a point of talking about higher education.” Without leadership on this issue from the governors office, Jones fears that the vacuum will continue to be filled by an Ohio General Assembly that is “reasonably hostile” to higher education.

Learn more about these and other issues at the AICUO website.

Hiram College starts a college Rotary Club (Rotaract)

Rotary International, a world-wide humanitarian service organization of 1.2 million members, has granted a charter to the Rotaract Club of Hiram College. Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30. Rotaract clubs are usually college- or university-based and are sponsored by a local Rotary Club making them true "partners in service" and key members of the Rotary family. There are over 8000 Rotaract Clubs located throughout 155 countries.

The Rotaract of Hiram College is sponsored by three local Rotary Clubs: Garrettsville-Hiram, Mantua, and Aurora Rotary Clubs. Steve Zabor, professor of economics and environmental studies and president of the Mantua Rotary Club, was very instrumental in forming Hiram’s Rotaract.

Hiram Rotaract members will address the physical and social needs of local communities, as well as international projects to assist children with AIDS, communities with limited fresh water resources, grassroots entrepreneurial opportunities, and the 150 million homeless children worldwide.

Roger Cram, director of special projects and community relations at Hiram College, is the advisor for the Hiram Rotaract. Cram expects that Hiram Rotaract members will work with and serve as mentors for Interact members throughout Northeastern Ohio. Interact is the Rotary-sponsored service club for 14 to 18 year olds.

Last spring, 21 Hiram College students expressed an interest in joining our new Rotaract of Hiram College this fall. These charter members as well as any and all interested students should attend the first meeting to be held 6:30 pm on Thursday, September 7, 2006, in the Brown Fall Room in the KC. All are Welcome!  For information, please contact Roger Cram  at ext. 5104.

Proof • Hayden Auditorium • Friday & Saturday • 7:30 p.m.

Don’t miss the theatre department’s production of David Auburn’s Proof. The final two shows are this Friday and Saturday evening in Hayden Auditorium. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m.

Auburn’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play tells the story of Catherine, a math prodigy, who sacrificed her education to care for her brilliant mathematician father as he succumbed to insanity. The play explores issues of trust, honesty, and deception when genius, insanity, passion, and love intertwine.

Suggested donation: $5.

Cast of characters

• Robert: Daniel Safko
• Catherine: Kelly Hanahan
• Clare: Lindsay Wilson
• Hal: Garrett Temkiewicz

Crew

• Emily Clark: Stage manager
• Peter Lindmark: Sets/run crew
• Megan Millard: Run crew/lights

For more information, please call the Hiram College box office at 330.569.5242.

Safford will present paper at conference

Lisa Safford, professor of art history, will present a paper at the 35th annual Mid Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies Conference (MAR/AAS).

The paper, titled “From Darkness into Light: Buddhist Caves Across Asia,” is based on her Fulbright-Hays- and NEH-funded learning experiences in India in 2003 and in South Korea in 2004.

The conference will be held at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, on October 28 and 29.

Safford also will chair a session of the MAR/AAS conference. The session will address the issue of “Locating Beliefs in Many Forms and Spaces.”

Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett to speak at Hiram symposium

Regina Brett, metro columnist at the Plain Dealer, will give the keynote speech at the first Chamberlain/Hopkins Symposium at Hiram College on Alcohol and Culture. The symposium will take place on September 18 and 19.

Brett has appealed in her column for greater responsibility on the part of Ohio judges in sentencing drunken drivers, particular repeat offenders. She wrote several columns on the issue as a result of the March 2 accident that took the lives of first-year Hiram College students Grace Chamberlain and Andy Hopkins and severely injured Evan DaSilva, who is returning to classes this week. James D. Cline, who had 11 previous drunken driving convictions, drove his truck into a car Andy was driving. Cline has pleaded guilty to five felony charges and will be sentenced on September 6.

A panel of respondents will address the issues that Brett raises in her address, which will begin at 7 p.m. on September 18.

In addition, there will be a passive program both days in the Kennedy Center main lounge, and on September 19 there also will be an Action Fair involving organizations and businesses with interest in alcohol and culture issues.

Watch the Harbinger for additional information on the symposium.

Were you square?

Nearly 200 first-year students attended the Sunday night square dance at the James H. Barrow Field Station. Festivities consisted of good food, horse shoes, and some kick-up-your-heels country dancing. The square dancing took a variety of forms, from huge circles of over 100 dancers to smaller promenade-groups of eight. Hope you didn’t miss it because a good time was had by all!

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