eInside Briefs
News Briefs
- Kent State Team Awarded $15,000 for Sustainability Design Competition
- Kent State Will Hold Water Symposium on Oct. 31 to Educate Public
- Co-Winners Announced for Homecoming Office Decorating Contest
- Annual Kent State Clinic Takes a Shot at the Seasonal Flu on Oct. 28
- Environmental Health and Safety Training Survey: Win a $50 Starbucks or Amazon Gift Card
Kent State Team Awarded $15,000 for Sustainability Design Competition
A team of Kent State University students and faculty has been awarded a $15,000 grant as part of a sustainability design competition funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Last year, a group of faculty representing three disciplines — biology, geology and architecture/environmental design — submitted an application for the EPA’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant competition. The P3 competition encourages college students to design innovative projects outside of the classroom in order to support the sustainability of the planet.
The Kent State P3 team will present its sustainability plan to a panel of qualified judges in Washington, D.C., in April. If the Kent State team is chosen as the winner of the competition, it will be awarded up to an additional $75,000 to implement its program.
“I think this type of grant exemplifies everything we’re meant to do as faculty at a research institution,” says Anne Jefferson, assistant professor of geology in Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences. “It really mixes teaching and research. We’re not teaching in a formal classroom setting, but working with a group of students and doing innovative scholarship at the same time.”
There is at least one undergraduate student and one graduate student representing the majors of biology, geology and architecture/environmental design. Chris Blackwood, an associate professor in Kent State’s Department of Biological Sciences, says that the students volunteered their time to make the team what it is now.
“We anticipated eight students and wound up with about 20,” says Reid Coffman, associate professor from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. “I think a lot of people were really interested in the project and became excited about it.”
Students have been working and researching since the beginning of the fall semester. Faculty meet with students weekly to discuss ideas and attempt to combine, edit and eventually finalize the plan, which will be representative of the students’ diversified fields and levels of knowledge.
“I wanted to get a taste of working with people who understand things other than architecture,” says Max Wagner, an architecture and urban design graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. “It gives me the chance to get a handle on things that I wouldn’t otherwise know about.”
For more information about Kent State’s submission, visit http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/10268/report/0.
For more information about the EPA’s P3 competition, visit http://epa.gov/ncer/p3.
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Kent State Will Hold Water Symposium on Oct. 31 to Educate Public
Kent State University will host a Water Symposium on
Friday, Oct. 31, at the Kent State Hotel and Conference
Center from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Kent State University will host a Water Symposium on Friday, Oct. 31, at the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Water Infrastructure in the Urban Environment.”
David L. Sedlak, Ph.D., from University of California, Berkeley, will serve as the keynote speaker. Sedlak is the Malozemoff Endowed Chair in Mineral Engineering, co-director of the Berkeley Water Center and director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. He is a nationally renowned expert on the reinvention and management of urban water systems.
Other symposium speakers will be agency representatives and university researchers from across the country, and topics will include the Great Lakes, water policy, green infrastructure and stormwater management. Laura Leff, interim chair of Kent State’s Department of Biological Sciences, will serve as the moderator for a panel discussion at the symposium.
“Locally, we have issues such as combined sewer overflows and stormwater management,” Leff says. “We will bring together individuals from various fields to synthesize and discuss water infrastructure in rebounding cities.”
The event is free and open to the public. A reception and poster session for students and faculty to present their research results will be held from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
The need to educate the community about stormwater is a condition of Kent State’s permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. Kent State belongs to NPDES because of the university’s municipal separated storm sewer system (MS4). Under the NPDES permit, the university must achieve six minimum requirements, one being public outreach.
Dennis Baden, manager of environmental health and safety at Kent State, says it is important to educate members of the university and community so they can take steps to help control what goes into the storm systems.
“We need to educate the public about what it means to have clean water and where the storm systems go,” Baden says. “It is important to remind everyone how they can prevent pollutants from entering the storm sewer and the effects of doing so.”
Pet waste, automobile care, lawn care and septic systems are all factors that contribute to polluted stormwater runoff.
“We hope that the attendees come away with an understanding of the multifaceted nature of water resources,” Leff says. “We also hope they will gain an appreciation of the various disciplines within science and beyond science that can contribute to an informed discussion of water.”
For more information about the symposium and to register, visit www.kent.edu/water.
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Co-Winners Announced for Homecoming Office Decorating Contest
Staff and students at the Student Services Office at Kent
State University's Regional Academic Center in Twinsburg
pose together after being announced as co-winner of the
2014 Homecoming Office Decorating Contest.
Kent State University’s Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship within the College of Business Administration and the Student Services Office at the Regional Academic Center in Twinsburg were announced as the 2014 co-winners of the Kent State Alumni Association’s Homecoming Office Decorating Contest.
With more than 15 offices competing in the annual Homecoming Office Decorating contest, Kent State pride was abundant across the university.
The Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship showed off its spirit with a football game skit and decorations that embraced the worldwide theme, which can be viewed in this video. The Student Services Office offered life-size picture frames for students to pose behind with Kent State-themed props, as well as several worldwide-themed bulletin boards and posters. The winners received a trophy along with coffee and muffins.
This year’s Homecoming theme was “Kent State Pride is Worldwide.” Participating offices were judged on creativity, use of theme, use of physical space, visual appearance and appeal and incorporation of staff. The office decorating contest was judged by the 2014 Homecoming Court members and alumni association staff.
Pictures from competing offices can be viewed on the alumni association website.
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Annual Kent State Clinic Takes a Shot at the Seasonal Flu on Oct. 28
Kent State students from the Honors Prevention and
Control of Diseases class sport Band-Aids on their arms
like the ones people receive after getting a flu shot. The
students are encouraging fellow students as well as Kent
State employees to participate in the university’s annual flu
vaccine clinic on Oct. 28.
With the flu season approaching quickly, the Honors Prevention and Control of Diseases class taught by Christopher Woolverton, Ph.D., is working to prevent a flu outbreak by helping to organize and promote student participation in the annual Kent State flu vaccine clinic. On Tuesday, Oct. 28, Kent State’s University Health Services, the College of Nursing and the College of Public Health will host the annual flu vaccine clinic for Kent State students, faculty, staff and dependents (dependents must be age 6 and older and on the university’s insurance plan) on the second floor of University Library from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Every year, the influenza virus spreads across college campuses nationwide. Close living quarters, packed classrooms, social events and shared restrooms make universities the ideal breeding grounds for the flu virus, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in five people catch the flu each year.
“People don’t take the flu seriously, but it can be a big problem on campus,” says Emily Seibert, one of the Honors Public Health students involved with organizing the clinic.
Free Swag for Student Participants
In past years, University Health Services has conducted the annual flu vaccine clinic with limited success of reaching students. An estimated 300 of the Kent Campus’ 28,000+ students received their flu shot last year at the Kent State clinic. This year, the Honors Prevention and Control of Diseases class aims to encourage student participation at the flu clinic with increased advertising on campus and opportunities to win raffle baskets with items from Kent local businesses. Also, many Kent State professors are supporting the flu clinic by offering extra credit to students with proof of the flu vaccination.
“There has never been a flu clinic like this, and I am excited to work with the class,” says Dr. Angela DeJulius, director of Kent State University Health Services.
How to “Wreck the Flu”
For Students: Kent State students may come to the clinic, located on the second floor of the library, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Oct. 28. The cost of vaccination is $20, which can be paid in cash, credit or billed through the Bursar.
For Employees and Dependents: Registration is required for Kent State employees and dependents age 6 and older for the Oct. 28 clinic. Appointments can be scheduled online at this link. Employees and dependents covered on the university’s insurance plans will be able to receive the flu vaccine at no charge. Those employees who are not covered by a university plan will be charged $20 for the vaccination. Checks may be made payable to Kent State University.
So come get vaccinated and help “Wreck the Flu” on the Kent Campus on Oct. 28.
Additional Information
For more information about the flu, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at www.cdc.gov/flu.
For more information or questions about Kent State’s annual flu vaccine clinic, please email eseibert@kent.edu, eturk1@kent.edu or jambros5@kent.edu.
For more information about University Health Services at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/uhs.
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Environmental Health and Safety Training Survey: Win a $50 Starbucks or Amazon Gift Card
Kent State University’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety is conducting a survey of faculty and staff members at all campuses. The purpose of the survey is to measure awareness and to gauge interest in attending Environmental Health and Safety training sessions in person or online.
Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KSUEHS by Nov. 2 to take our five-minute survey. Once you have completed the survey, you will be entered into a random drawing to win your choice of a $50 Starbucks or Amazon gift card. Three gift cards will be awarded. Respondent confidentiality is guaranteed.
Thank you for your participation. If you have any technical issues accessing the survey, please email elewis9@kent.edu.
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