eInside Briefs
News Briefs
- Kent State’s John L. West Named Trustees Research Professor
- Kent State Holds 13th Annual Symposium on Democracy, April 23-25
- Kent State University, OCPM Employees Invited to Meet-and-Greet Day, April 21
- Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Survey
- New Tools Announced for Scholarship Administrators
- National Alcohol Screening Day at Kent State is April 9
Kent State’s John L. West Named Trustees Research Professor
Kent State University Board of Trustees
has named John L. West, Ph.D., an
internationally respected researcher and the
university’s former vice president for research,
to a five-year term as Trustees Research
Professor, effective July 1.
The Kent State University Board of Trustees recently named John L. West, Ph.D., an internationally respected researcher and the university’s former vice president for research, to a five-year term as Trustees Research Professor, effective July 1.
The professorship will include teaching, advising students, continuing research, involvement in university committees, and participation in regional business and community groups and initiatives. West will continue to hold tenure in Kent State’s Department of Chemistry. The Kent State Board of Trustees approved the action at its last meeting on March 14.
“I’m honored by the support for the work I’m doing,” West says. “This position will allow me to focus not only on further research into liquid crystals, but also to engage with the external community to see how it is translated into support for the region’s economic development and growth.”
West joined Kent State in 1984 as a senior research fellow of the Liquid Crystal Institute®. He served as director of the Liquid Crystal Institute and the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM) from 1996 to 2002, and served as vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at Kent State from 2003 to 2010. During that time, he worked with NorTech to establish FlexMatters, a collaboration designed to support the growth of the flexible electronics industry in Ohio.
“I’m very excited about where things are going,” West adds. “It’s great to see companies such as Kent Displays and AlphaMicron moving into significant commercialization. Now it’s time for another round of innovations in the liquid crystal field, perhaps in new areas such as medical diagnostics and biomedical applications.”
West holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the College of William & Mary, and a master’s in chemistry and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.
West recently spent a year splitting his time between Kent State and Central Washington University, helping the latter with evaluating and establishing a research foundation. He returned to Kent State on a full-time basis last fall.
“I think there are huge opportunities out there for liquid crystals to be applied in a number of new and different areas,” West says.
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Kent State Holds 13th Annual Symposium on Democracy, April 23-25
Best selling novelist Jeff Shaara is the
keynote speaker at Kent State's 13th
annual Symposium on Democracy.
Kent State University’s 13th annual Symposium on Democracy will be held at the Kent Student Center Kiva on April 23–25. In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the nation’s greatest conflict, this year’s theme is “Democracy and the American Civil War.” The event is free and open to the public.
“I can't think of a better topic for our fine annual Symposium on Democracy than the anniversary of a conflict whose cause was the continued right of states to allow their citizens to hold other Americans as chattel, property to be bought and sold,” says William Underwood, director of the Kent State University Press and one of the co-chairs of the 2012 symposium.
Bestselling novelist Jeff Shaara, author of Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, will be the keynote speaker. On Monday, April 23, at 5 p.m. in the Kiva, Shaara will address the question of why the Civil War continues to fascinate Americans and what it is about the war that makes it such an enduring phenomenon in his presentation “The Civil War as an Enduring Phenomenon.” Shaara also will participate in Tuesday’s panel discussions. Books will be available for sale and signing by the author.
Panel discussions with six leading scholars of the Civil War era will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 24 and 25, in the Kiva. On Tuesday at 9 a.m., Mitchell Snay of Denison University, and John David Smith of University of North Carolina Charlotte, will discuss “Race and the Civil War.” At 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Matt Gallman from the University of Florida, and Mark Grimsley from The Ohio State University, will examine “The Civil War Home Front.” And on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., Stanley Harrold of South Carolina State University, and Fay Yarbrough of the University of Oklahoma, will discuss “Reconstruction and the State of the Nation after the Civil War.” Audience members will be invited to pose questions to the panelists.
Breakout sessions for teachers will take place following the panel discussions.
Each spring, Kent State University inquires, learns and reflects on social, cultural and historical events through the annual Symposium on Democracy, held in commemoration of the events surrounding May 4, 1970. The symposium honors the memories of the four students — Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder — who lost their lives on that day, with an enduring dedication to scholarship that seeks to prevent violence and to promote democratic values and civil discourse.
For more information about the symposium, including the schedule of events and speaker bios, visit www.kent.edu/democracy.
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Kent State University, OCPM Employees Invited to Meet-and-Greet Day, April 21
The Kent State/OCPM Meet-and-Greet Day on April 21 will
feature the Kent State football team’s intra-team scrimmage,
including tours of Dix Stadium and other fun activities.
Faculty, staff and students from Kent State University and the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine (OCPM) are invited to a Meet-and-Greet Day on Saturday, April 21, beginning at noon at Dix Stadium, located at 2213 Summit St. in Kent. The event celebrates the collaboration between both institutions and is free and open to Kent State and OCPM employees and their families.
The Meet-and-Greet Day will begin with lunch and games in the Field House at noon, and continue at 1 p.m. with a youth football clinic, presented by Beef O’ Brady’s, which is open to all grade-school-age children. The Kent State football team’s intra-team scrimmage will take place at 2:30 p.m. There will be tours of Dix Stadium during the event, including additional fun activities.
Faculty and staff will be required to present their Kent State or OCPM identification cards to enter the Field House for lunch.
To attend the event, R.S.V.P. by April 19 to Justin Hilton at jhilton@kent.edu or 330-672-8573 for Kent State employees, and to Jaclyn Macomber at jmacomber@ocpm.edu or 216-916-7531 for OCPM employees.
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Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Survey
Kent State University’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) provides a comprehensive, collaborative and victim-centered response to sexual assault that includes prevention, education and recovery components. The responsibility of the SART is to educate the university community about sexual assault, to provide anti-violence programming and support services, and to encourage all community members to speak out when witnessing violence.
SART is conducting a survey of all Kent Campus students, faculty and staff to gauge awareness of the important topic of sexual assault prevention and to solicit feedback to improve the awareness programs and sexual assault support services offered in the future.
Please visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/KSUSART by April 27 to take our brief, 5-minute survey. Thank you for your participation.
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New Tools Announced for Scholarship Administrators
The Student Financial Aid Office, the Kent State University Foundation and Donor Services announce the introduction of two new tools for scholarship administrators.
“We are very excited about these new scholarship administration enhancement tools and hope that you will find them useful,” says Scott McKinney, associate director of Stewardship at the Division of Institutional Advancement.
Listserv
An email listserv will be used to provide scholarship administrators with a mechanism to receive updates and announcements from our offices and to provide a forum for administrators to discuss concerns, challenges and share best practices. Scholarship administrators were automatically enrolled in the listserv and received a welcome message the week of March 12. Any current or new administrators who did not receive this message should contact Patty Bujorian at 330-672-0418 or pbujori2@kent.edu to be added to the list.
Training
Quarterly scholarship administrator training programs will now be offered to scholarship administrators. These hands-on sessions will provide new scholarship administrators with training on how to access the scholarship workflow, the online scholarship search program and common scholarship application, the Student Online Donor Acknowledgment and Appreciation (SODA) process, and how to access financial data via Banner. Any scholarship administrator who would like a refresher on these topics also is welcome to attend.
The first training dates are April 18 or April 23 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. To register online, go to:
www.kent.edu/event/scholarship
The sessions will be held in Room 333 of the Library. Please direct questions regarding the training to Bujorian at 330-672-0418 or pbujori2@kent.edu, or Sandra Montgomery at 330-672-0501 or smontg1@kent.edu.
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National Alcohol Screening Day at Kent State is April 9
National Alcohol Screening Day at Kent State will take place on Monday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kent Student Center Ballroom. Members of the Kent State community, including faculty and staff members, can take an anonymous self-assessment to learn how alcohol might be affecting their lives.
Food, beverages and giveaway bags will be available to screening day participants.
The event is co-sponsored by University Health Services, Counseling and Human Development Services, Active Minds @ Kent State University, Public Health Student Alliance and Eta Sigma Gamma. Funding support was received from University Health Services and the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.
For more information, contact Scott Dotterer, coordinator, Office of Health Promotion, University Health Services at sdottere@kent.edu or 330-672-8266.
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