eInside Briefs

New Interim Dean Named for Kent State’s Honors College

Donald Palmer, Ph.D., has been named
interim dean of the Honors College. 

Kent State University Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Todd Diacon has announced that Donald Palmer, Ph.D., has been named interim dean of the Honors College. Palmer currently serves as professor in Kent State’s Department of Geology. He has worked at Kent State for nearly 40 years and has served as chair of the geology department.

Palmer will serve as interim dean of the Honors College from Aug. 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013. He succeeds Donald Williams, Ph.D., professor of economics at Kent State, who is taking a year-long sabbatical in Luxembourg and returning to teaching.

“Don Palmer’s service will bring stability, wisdom and experience to the college, while allowing us to conduct a national search for the next dean,” Diacon says. “My deepest thanks go to Don Williams for a job well done in the Honors College, and I wish him the best on his upcoming sabbatical in Europe. Our honors students are indeed fortunate to have the ‘two Dons’ in their lives.”

Palmer joined Kent State in 1974 as assistant professor of geology. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles, and master’s and doctorate degrees from Princeton University. Palmer served as director of the Water Resources Research Institute at Kent State from 1987 to 1993. He has been honored with the Kent State University Alumni Award for Teaching and the university’s Distinguished Honors Faculty Award.

Palmer’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Society) and the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

For more information about Kent State’s Honors College, visit www.kent.edu/honors.

Copyright Law Scholar, Educator Named New Director of Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science

Tomas A. Lipinski, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., will
join Kent State as the new director of the
School of Library and Information Science
in January 2013.

The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University announces the appointment of Tomas A. Lipinski, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., as its new director.

Lipinski will join the department in January 2013 to replace Richard Rubin, Ph.D., who left in 2010 to become Kent State’s associate provost for extended education. School of Library and Information Science Associate Professor Don A. Wicks, Ph.D., has served as interim director.

Lipinski currently serves as executive associate dean and professor at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He had previously been director of the Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) degree program and professor at the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also was co-director and founder of the Center for Information Policy Research.  In 2007 and 2009, he received the Web-based Information Science Education Faculty of the Year Award for Excellence in Online Education from the Association of Library and Information Science Education. His library experience includes being a librarian at Milwaukee Public Library (1992-1994) and associate librarian/associate director at H. Douglas Barclay Law Library, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. (1990-1992).

In his announcement of the appointment, Stanley T. Wearden, Ph.D., dean of the College of Communication and Information, says, “Dr. Lipinski comes to us with an exceptional record as a scholar and as an administrator. His combination of expertise in library and information science, and law, will help the college reshape its curriculum in exciting ways. His prominence in the field will help to elevate the reputation of an already highly regarded school. We look forward to his service on the College of Communication and Information leadership team.”

Lipinski holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a Master of Library and Information Science from the School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; a Master of Laws (taxation) from The John Marshall Law School, Chicago; a Juris Doctor from Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee; and a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Issues related to copyright, information law and intellectual property form the core of Lipinski’s research interests, include ethics; digital archiving; Internet-based research data; freedom of inquiry; laws and policies affecting libraries, schools and other information settings, including privacy and free speech; indigenous cultural rights; anonymous speech on the internet; ownership of information; distance education; and the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2001. Lipinski is author or co-author of three books, 29 refereed articles, 17 book chapters, and more than 100 other publications, book reviews and presentations. A fourth book on licensing will be published later this year.

A leader in copyright education, Lipinski is a member of the American Library Association, Office of Information Technology Policy, Copyright Education Subcommittee, member at large, and is vice-chair/chair elect for 2013-2014. He also serves as chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries Copyright Discussion Group (2012-2013) and as a member of the Association for Library and Information Science Education Board, Task Force on The Future of JELIS (and its possible release online). Lipinski annually gives numerous talks, presentations and seminars to librarians and educators, and most recently delivered the keynote address at the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Annual Conference this past May. He has been a Global Law Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT and the Centre for Intellectual Rights, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven), Belgium (2006), and was named to the Fulbright Senior Specialist Roster (2005-2010). He has testified at several United States Copyright Office public round tables and field hearings and provided copyright-related legal services to libraries and schools.

“My research and teaching has been in the area of information law and policy, especially issues affecting public institutions of the cultural record, such as libraries, archives and museums,” says Lipinski.  “I’d like to bring those perspectives to enhance the heft and programming of the school and the college. Of course, this is an exciting time for the school as it expands physically and intellectually, and a critical time for library schools -- and I am honored to be a part of it. Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science is composed of a dedicated and energetic faculty, staff and student body of unlimited potential. Together there is much we can achieve.”

The School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University has the only American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Science degree program in Ohio, offering courses in Kent, Columbus (State Library of Ohio) and through a fully online option.  The school also offers a Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management and participates in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the College of Communication and Information. The school is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top 20 library and information science graduate programs, with a youth librarianship program that is ranked 13th. It is one of the largest library schools in the country, with more than 650 students enrolled. 

For more information, visit www.kent.edu/slis.

Kent State University Gets Refunding for Upward Bound Programs

A student listens attentively during an Upward Bound
session. The Upward Bound programs are federally funded
and designed to cultivate academic potential and college readiness
for first-generation, low-income students and families.

Kent State University’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has received additional funding for two of its federally funded TRIO Upward Bound programs.

The Upward Bound Classic Academy, which has been successfully funded since 1971, was refunded in the amount of $495,139 per year for the next five years. The grant includes a partnership with Kent State’s College of Business Administration and will serve 118 students from Akron Buchtel, Barberton and Warren G. Harding high schools and communities.

The Upward Bound Public Health grant, formerly called the Upward Bound PREP Academy, funded since 1999, was refunded in the amount of $262,500. The grant, which includes a partnership with Kent State’s College of Public Health, will serve 63 students from Lorain, Ravenna and Windham high schools and communities.

Both grants also include significant partnerships with Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, as well as an innovative strategy that involves the university’s Math Emporium to address math college readiness gaps in high school students prior to starting college.

“The Upward Bound programs directly support our mission and create meaningful pathways to college for students, and we at Kent State are thrilled to host these programs,” says Alfreda Brown, Ph.D., vice president for Kent State’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The Upward Bound programs are federally funded TRIO programs designed to provide college and academic readiness for first-generation, low-income students and families. The programs focus on cultivating the academic potential in students to successfully enter, persist and graduate with a postsecondary degree.

“Our Upward Bound programs have been transforming destinies for many years, and with adequate funding, will continue to do so for many more years to come,” says Dana Lawless-Andric, director of the pre-college and TRIO Upward Bound programs at Kent State.

The Upward Bound programs have a long track record of success – 76 percent of Kent State’s Upward Bound college enrollees have graduated or are persisting with a degree, compared with the national average of 60 percent.

For more information about Kent State’s Upward Bound programs, visit www.kent.edu/diversity/pipeline/precollege.

WKSU Honored With Seven Ohio Broadcasters Awards

WKSU News Director M.L. Schultze named president-elect of Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters 
 

M.L. Schultze, WKSU news director, is president-elect of the
Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters (OAPB). She will assume
the position of board president of the association in June 2013.
WKSU also was recently honored with seven OAPB awards.

WKSU News Director M.L. Schultze was voted president-elect of the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters (OAPB), even as WKSU station staffers were honored with seven OAPB awards, including four first-place prizes. The awards luncheon ceremony took place on June 3 at the Hilton Columbus at Easton. WKSU competes in the Large Market division with other commercial and non-commercial radio operations in major Ohio media markets, including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and the Ohio News Network. 
 
Schultze will assume the role of Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters board president from current leader Tom Moore in June 2013. Board members are responsible for managing the group’s annual contest and awards luncheon, the scholarship competition and additional events, such as workshops. Schultze came to WKSU in July 2007 after 25 years at The Repository, where she was managing editor for nine years. While there, she covered schools, city government, crime, courts, politics and special projects. A native of the Philadelphia, Pa., area, Schultze graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in magazine journalism and political science in 1978. Schultze lives in Canton with her husband, Rick Senften, a Kent State journalism instructor and retired special projects editor at The Repository, and their son. Their daughter works in Washington, D.C.
 
Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters awards went to five individual staff members and one group effort. The full newsroom contributed to the first-place effort for Extraordinary Coverage of a Scheduled Event for a seven-part series of reports on the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2011, ten years later. Stories included Vivian Goodman’s profile of the late Lilian Tyrrell and her controversial woven tapestry “Falling Man,” Amanda Rabinowitz’s examination of changes in rural life following 9/11, Kevin Niedermier’s report on the men who were in the air traffic control tower as the doomed Flight 93 flew into Cleveland airspace, Jeff St. Clair’s introduction of a woman who was married to a suspected al-Qaeda collaborator, Tim Rudell’s discussion with college students about the world-changing event, Kabir Bhatia’s investigation of the information – and misinformation – about Islam that has bubbled to the surface in the past decade and, Schultze’s conversation with Wendy Anderson, a local woman who went to New York to become an early responder.
 
A first-place award went to Schultze for Best Breaking News Coverage for “Stark County Seeks Shelter.” When Canton was struck by a debilitating ice storm, much of Stark County lost power – including Schultze’s family. Making lemonade from lemons, Schultze grabbed a portable recorder and interviewed people in the shelter who were at risk when the electricity went out.
 
St. Clair won two Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters awards for Exploradio. This new weekly series on science and technology in Northeast Ohio was recognized with a first-place award for Best Documentary or Series and a second-place award for Best Use of Sound for an installment focused on a composer who finds inspiration from sounds of nature.
 
The first-place Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters award for Best Enterprising Reporting went to Goodman for a three-part series examining the state of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ) community in Northeast Ohio. As the International Gay Games prepare to hold an event in Cleveland and Akron in 2014, Goodman asked: Just how gay-friendly is this region?
 
Second-place awards went to Rudell for Best Reporter in Ohio, and Rabinowitz in the Feature Reporting category for “Hard Hits on ‘Little Bobbleheads’.”
 
The Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters aims to advance the profession of journalism, to cooperate with The Associated Press in the exchange of accurate, impartial news reports and to serve as liaison between The Associated Press and its members.
 
WKSU broadcasts NPR and Classical Music at 89.7 FM, and is a service of Kent State University. WKSU programming is also heard on WKRW 89.3 FM in Wooster, WKRJ 91.5 FM in Dover/New Philadelphia, WKSV 89.1 FM in Thompson, WNRK 90.7 in Norwalk and W239AZ 95.7 FM in Ashland. The station broadcasts four HD Radio channels – adding WKSU-2 Folk Alley, WKSU-3 The Classical Channel and WKSU-4 The News Channel to the analog broadcast schedule. For more information about WKSU, visit www.wksu.org.

Alcoa Foundation Provides Kent State With Recycling Bins to Support Its Sustainability Initiatives

Kent State received 60 recycling bins,
like the one pictured above, from the Alcoa
Foundation as part of its national bin grant
program to colleges and universities. 

The Alcoa Foundation, in partnership with national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC), provided 60 recycling bins to Kent State as part of its national bin grant program to colleges and universities throughout the country during the 2012 RecycleMania collegiate recycling competition.

The bin grant program is an effort to help schools boost their results during the competition, and expand their recycling collections throughout the year. Alcoa Foundation has awarded 32 grants to colleges and universities, ranging from well-known large universities to smaller schools. In total, 20,000 recycling bins will be distributed on campuses throughout the country.

Kent State will use its bins for outdoor events where little or no additional recycling is currently provided, such as football games, other sporting events, festivals, summer sports, cheerleading and band camps.

"These bins will give us the flexibility to provide more recycling for outdoor events.  Sporting events, festivals and camps produce a lot of recyclable bottles and cans and in the past, our ability to collect them has been limited,” says Manager of Sustainability Melanie Knowles. “Now there will be a sturdy recycling bin for every extra trash bin that is placed by the grounds department for these events."

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities in their campus communities. During the competition, colleges and universities vie for top awards in nine categories to see which schools recycle the most on a per capita basis, produce the least amount of waste and recycle the largest percentage of their overall waste.

“Our continued support of RecycleMania is designed to ignite real change, to achieve one thing: dramatically higher recycling rates,” says Beth Schmitt, director of recycling programs for Alcoa. “Through the recycling bin grant program, we want to encourage a social shift toward recycling on college campuses. We want to show millennials that recycling is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, and it’s something they should be in the habit of doing long after they leave college.”  

This year, Kent State participated in RecycleMania for the third time. The first year, Kent State participated in the Benchmark Division, which only included residence halls. Subsequently, the entire campus participated in the Competition Division. Kent State also did an informal, head-to-head competition with the University of Akron, and the residence halls organized a hall-to-hall competition internally.

“RecycleMania provides colleges and universities with an easy way to boost recycling on campus and to instill students with a greater sense of obligation to recycle throughout their lives,” says Matthew M. McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “We’re thankful for the support of Alcoa Foundation, and for the company’s continued leadership in advancing recycling nationwide.”

Since 2008, Alcoa has distributed more than 100,000 recycling bins, launched the “Make an Impact” program to help families live more sustainably, developed the free Aluminate™ recycling app, and, in the last five years, invested nearly $3.5 million in community-based recycling programs. Alcoa Foundation helped kick off the 2011 RecycleMania competition by awarding 13 universities across the U.S. with thousands of stackable, six-gallon bins appropriate for use in student housing and offices. Alcoa’s recycling initiatives can be found at http://alcoa.com/alcoa_recycling.

For more information about Kent State’s sustainability efforts, visit www.kent.edu/sustainability.