eInside Briefs

Faculty and Staff Parking Permit Rate Increase

A Kent State employee clears snow from a parking lot on
the Kent Campus. 

In order to respond to the increasing cost of parking lot construction and maintenance for the current and future needs of this growing campus, a two-year  faculty and staff parking permit rate increase will be implemented starting with the 2013 -2014 permit year.

Beginning June 1, 2013, faculty and staff parking permit rates will increase from $12 to $12.50 per month and beginning June 1, 2014, parking permit rates will increase from $12.50 to $12.75 per month.  These rate increases have been approved by both the AAUP and ASFCME unions.

As a reminder, online parking permit renewals for faculty and staff will be held April 15 through May 18.  An email notification containing a link to the Parking Services website will be sent to all eligible employees on or around the start of permit renewals. 

For more information about Parking Services, visit www.kent.edu/parking/index.cfm.

Register for Mammogram Screenings at the Women’s Center

The Kent State University Women’s Center will offer mammogram screenings to qualified Kent State employees, spouses and students on April 10, 11 and 12.

Mammograms take approximately 12 minutes and will be conveniently provided in Tiffany Breast Care’s mobile mammography unit. The van will be located on the Kent Campus in front of the Women’s Center. Participants’ health insurance will be billed or participants may choose to self-pay.

For additional information or to register, call the Women's Center at 330-672-9230, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Registration is required by April 4.

Early Detection is Key
Many women with early breast cancer have no symptoms. It is crucial to get screened before symptoms have a chance to appear. The most common sign of breast cancer is a new lump or mass.
 
Other signs may include:

• Swelling of all or part of the breast
• Skin irritation or dimpling
• Pain in the breast or nipple
• Thickening of the nipple or breast
• Discharge other than breast milk
  

Marlo Kibler, coordinator of university benefits for Kent State, was asymptomatic (no symptoms) and looked like the picture of health. She didn’t drink or smoke and maintained an active lifestyle.

“I had an extremely rare form of cancer that is not typically responsive to traditional treatment methods such as chemo or radiation. Only because I go to the doctor every year to get a physical exam was it found,” says Kibler. “As it turns out, the type of cancer I had is indigenous to people of color and Greek decent. It affects less than one percent of the world population.”

Kibler encourages other women to get screened and be proactive about their health.

“Today, I am cancer-free due to a surgery and I have been that way for almost five years. I make sure I get every screening and test available to me during my annual physical and take a proactive approach to my healthcare,” she says.

Black Women and Cancer
Although the overall lifetime risk of breast cancer is lower for black women compared with white women, the death rates are higher. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among black women and in 2010, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that breast cancer was the leading cause of cancer death for black women aged 45-64 years. What was most alarming in this CDC report was that the breast cancer death rate for women aged 45-64 years was 60 percent higher for black women than white women. (See “CDC: National Vital Statistics System”: www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm).

For more information about the Women’s Center, visit www.kent.edu/womenscenter.

University Communications and Marketing Releases New Photo Archive

An updated photo archives that
documents campus life at Kent State
has been released by University
Communications and Marketing.

University Communications and Marketing released an updated photo archive website documenting campus life at Kent State University.

Bob Christy, photography coordinator at University Communications and Marketing, with the assistance of Dan Karp, director of creative services, and Iris Harvey, vice president for university relations, has been working on the new archive project since June 2012.

“We wanted to create an archive that was much more about self-service,” says Christy. “We wanted to focus more on adding photos, rather than servicing requests for it.”

The archive contains photos that cover sporting events, the arts, student activities, news and the executive staff of the university.

The photographers in the department are willing to cover department events across campus for a nominal fee. 

Christy decided to update the archive after realizing how cumbersome the former website was. He says he wants to incorporate more of a corporate Kent State look and update photos more often.

“This was a no brainer for me,” Christy says. “It will give us the chance to expand the media to send to the archives.”

The archives are open to anyone creating material to promote Kent State. Christy says the updated archives will allow users to explore and download photos straight from the website.  Prior to the update, users had to submit a photo request to the photography department.

“We wanted to do this to serve the needs of the university and groups who need to access photos for promotional materials for Kent State,” says Karp.

All images in the archive are free-use, as long as the images are being used to promote Kent State. The website is password protected, but qualified individuals can obtain the password by emailing photo@kent.edu. The photos may be used online or in print. 

To see the photo archives, visit http://photo.kent.edu/.

Daily Kent Stater Earns First Place Honors at Ohio Newspaper Association Competition

The Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University’s student-run daily newspaper, won first place in heading writing and editorial writing in the 2013 Ohio Collegiate Newspaper and Web Design Contest sponsored by the Ohio Newspaper Association and the Ohio Newspaper Foundation.

“The headline achieves the ultimate goal: It makes me want to read the story [in the Daily Kent Stater],” says Thomas Fladung, managing editor of The Plain Dealer and judge of the headline writing category. He says of the first place winner that “[this is] a good example of a successful hard-news enterprise headline.”

The judges in the editorial writing category included Peter Mattiace of The Courier in Findlay and Steve Keller and Brad Sherman, managing editor and staff writer respectively of The Telegram in Jackson, Ohio. They wrote that, “The Daily Kent Stater's editorials are strong, clear and perhaps most importantly, directly aimed at campus issues. Agree or not, there's no question where The Daily Kent Stater stands.”

The Daily Kent Stater competed in Division A of the competition against The BG News at Bowling Green State University, The Record at the University of Cincinnati, The Post at Ohio University and The Lantern at The Ohio State University.

The Daily Kent Stater also placed in four additional competition categories.

• Arts and Entertainment - Second Place
• Design - Second Place
• News coverage - Third Place
• Photojournalism - Third Place
  

The Ohio Newspaper Association and Ohio Newspapers Foundation host the annual Ohio Collegiate Newspaper and Website Competition to recognize the achievements of Ohio’s college and university newspapers. 

College of Communication and Information Offers New Education-Abroad Course in Prague

Students from the College of Communication and Information
will have the opportunity to study in the city of Prague this
summer. Prague is the capital and largest city in the Czech
Republic.

The schools of Communication Studies and Journalism and Mass Communication will offer a new education-abroad opportunity in Prague, the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, during Summer Session III.

Modern Media and Democracy is a five-week seminar designed for undergraduate students who are interested in gaining an overview of the Czech culture, taking a more focused look at the media and democracy, and improving their research and storytelling skills. The course, worth 3 credit hours, is co-sponsored by the Prague Freedom Foundation.

Applications will be accepted from any undergraduate student from the College of Communication and Information. Admissions will be competitive, interviews will be required and only 10 students will be admitted. Course and application information is available online.

The new course will run July 15 through Aug. 17. Students will spend the first three weeks in Franklin Hall reading, researching and preparing for the trip by gaining an understanding of Prague and the culture, government and media of the Czech Republic. In the third week, students will select a research topic to explore while in Prague. The final two weeks of the course, Aug. 3 through Aug. 18, will be in Prague, where students will study at Anglo-American University located near Old Town Prague.

While in Prague, students will regularly report on topics related to media and democracy, posting their stories and images on a course blog and website.

The course is a collaboration between School of Journalism and Mass Communication Associate Professor Candace Perkins Bowen and Communication Studies Assistant Professor Catherine Goodall, Ph.D. They hope to encourage students to gain global perspectives and challenge them to understand the differences in media structure, news reporting and storytelling in Prague, the home base of numerous national and international media outlets.

"We are looking for students capable of adapting to new situations and solving problems," says Perkins Bowen. "How do students cope if sources aren't easily accessible or forthcoming? How do they work with sources for whom English is not a primary language? We want to attract students who feel comfortable researching, interviewing and writing, and who have some facility with multimedia storytelling."

Perkins Bowen's experience as a journalism instructor in Prague in 1998 influenced her desire to expose students to the culture and the country. "I love Prague. Being there was so valuable to me that I want other students to have the same experience."
 
"This is a unique opportunity for students to explore the role of modern media in democracy in both the United States and the Czech Republic," Goodall says. "Students will be challenged to investigate an area of particular interest to them. For example, they may wish to explore differences in political campaigning, health promotion and media structure and law in both countries. We are excited to work individually with students to help them gain the most from this experience."

As part of the Prague education-abroad agreement, 10 students from Anglo-American University will come to Kent State in January 2014. School of Journalism and Mass Communication Adjunct Professor John Bowen will lead this exchange.