eInside Briefs

Kent State University Board of Trustees Meeting, Sept. 9

The Kent State University Board of Trustees will hold its next regular business meeting Wednesday, Sept. 9. The Board is scheduled to convene at 3 p.m. in the George Urban Board of Trustees Conference Room, which is located on the second floor of the Kent Campus Library.

Trustees will retire into executive session/working lunch from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Alumni Suite to consider specific topics as provided for under Ohio’s “Sunshine Law.”

Board committees will meet as follows:

• Committee of the Whole – 8-10 a.m. in the Urban Conference Room.
• Academic Excellence and Student Success Committee – 10:15-11:15 a.m. in the Urban Conference Room.
• Audit and Compliance Committee – 10:15-11:15 a.m. in Room 222.
• Finance and Administration Committee — 1:45-2:45 p.m. in the Urban Conference Room.
• External Relations and Development Committee – 1:45-2:45 p.m. in Room 222.
  

The Board meeting agenda will be available at www.kent.edu/bot/meetings.

PNC Bank Is Providing Banking Services to Kent State Employees

Pictured is a PNC Bank/Kent State University branded check
card. PNC is offering student and workplace banking, as
well as financial literacy programs, to Kent State students,
faculty and staff members.

On July 1, PNC Bank began providing student and workplace banking, as well as financial literacy programs, for Kent State University’s students, faculty and staff members.

The university requires a banking service provider to support its daily business operations, and PNC also provides consumer banking services to the Kent State community.

PNC’s WorkPlace Banking program delivers financial services, benefits and rewards to Kent State employees. WorkPlace Banking provides a comprehensive picture of your financial situation and helps set you on the right path to achieving your short- and long-term financial goals.

To learn more about PNC WorkPlace Banking and how it may benefit you, visit the PNC WorkPlace Banking website.

PNC Locations at Kent State

A Kent Campus branch staffed by two bank specialists is available to assist customers with opening accounts, completing transactions and providing information about PNC products and services.

Also, 11 ATMs are located throughout most of Kent State’s eight-campus system. There will be six ATMs on the Kent Campus and one ATM on each Regional Campus except Kent State University at Ashtabula (there are no PNC banks in that area, so Kent State Ashtabula will select a different banking partner to meet the needs of their community) and at Kent State University at East Liverpool (the PNC branch is within a block of campus).

Kent State’s LGBTQ Student Center Offers Safe Space Training for Campus Departments

College of Communication and Information is first academic unit to offer safe space training for its faculty and staff

Safe Space: Ally Training 101 facilitator Amanda Leu
leads faculty, staff and graduate students from Kent State
University's College of Communication and Information in
discussion.

Kent State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Student Center offers Safe Space: Ally Training for Kent State offices, including academic areas on campus, to equip students, faculty and staff with the tools for creating safe spaces and welcoming environments for LGBTQ students on campus.

The center recently held its first academic-area training session for faculty, staff and graduate students in the College of Communication and Information. More than 30 members of the College of Communication and Information attended the session.

Amanda Leu, Safe Space facilitator and academic advisor for the School of Communication Studies in the College of Communication and Information, and Ken Ditlevson, director of the LGBTQ Student Center, presented the training session as part of an ongoing series to make Kent State and its communities a safer place for all people regardless of sex or gender. Training participants learned about bias, stereotypes, current vocabulary and best practices to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students seeking support and reaffirmation of their role and place at Kent State. The center is a part of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

“Whether we are faculty, staff or advisors, we want to see our students succeed,” Leu says. “This training is designed to increase everyone’s comfort level in how we can all communicate with each other, and in turn develop an increased awareness of the services on campus and in the greater Kent-Akron community that support LGBTQ people.”

The four-hour session included discussion and activities that covered personal biases and stereotypes, dispelled myths about the LGBTQ community, terminology that establishes a level of respect, tips for being a Safe Space Ally and the number of services and agencies on campus and in the surrounding area that are available to support and assist LGBTQ individuals.

“This training is important because we want Kent State to be an inclusive and welcoming campus for all people,” Ditlevson says. “When lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer people encounter environments that are not inclusive, students are less likely to graduate, more likely to drop out or to transfer to another university.” 

Safe Space Ally participants can display a Safe Space Ally sign designating their work area as a safe space and identifying themselves as a contact for LGBTQ students who need resources, support, connections and counseling.

“These services and agencies provide a support system for students, especially for those who have been subjected to rejection, scorn or assault when coming out or being recognized as part of the LGBTQ community,” Leu says.

For more information about Kent State’s LGBTQ Student Center and Safe Space training, visit www.kent.edu/lgbtq, call 330-672-8580 or email LGBTQSC@kent.edu. An open registration training will be held Dec. 3 from 1-5 p.m. in the Center for Undergraduate Excellence, rooms 141 and 143. Interested individuals will be able to register on the Human Resources website in the Beyond Compliance training section.

Kent State Places Recycling Bins at College of Podiatric Medicine

Keep America Beautiful and the Coca-Cola Foundation make recycling more convenient for colleges and universities nationwide

Kent State University’s College of Podiatric
Medicine installed 42 recycling bins as part
of a national recycling bin grant made
possible by Keep America Beautiful and the
Coca-Cola Foundation.

Kent State University’s College of Podiatric Medicine in Independence, Ohio, has installed 42 recycling bins as part of a national recycling bin grant made possible by Keep America Beautiful and the Coca-Cola Foundation.

At Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine, the 23-gallon Waste Watcher bins have been placed throughout the building alongside trash bins. Placing trash and recycling bins together increases recycling rates and reduces the contamination of recyclables with trash.

Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine is one of 37 colleges and universities across the United States receiving support from the Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program. An additional 52 grants are being awarded to noncollegiate locations that include nonprofit organizations, local government agencies and other community groups. The 2015 grant program will award 5,300 recycling bins overall.

“Thanks to the Coca-Cola Foundation and Keep America Beautiful, the College of Podiatric Medicine will be implementing its first formal recycling program since becoming part of Kent State University in 2012,” says Allan Boike, D.P.M., dean of Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine. “One primary focus of the College of Podiatric Medicine’s academic program is training our podiatric students to think with a big picture perspective. Sustainability and programs focused on preserving and enhancing our environment fit perfectly into this mission.”

“Through this program and our more than 50-year partnership with Keep America Beautiful, we are helping to ensure that communities understand the importance of recycling,” says Lori George Billingsley, vice president of community relations at Coca-Cola North America. “Community recycling not only impacts the environment today, but it helps build sustainable communities for the future.”

“Research has shown that convenience is a key factor in getting people to recycle,” says Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful. “With Coca-Cola’s continued support, the recycling bins provided through the grant program create literally thousands of new opportunities for people to recycle in public areas across the country.”

Pictured are the recycling bins arriving
at the loading dock at Kent State's
College of Podiatric Medicine. 

Recipients were chosen by Keep America Beautiful based on criteria including the extent of their need, recycling experience and their ability to sustain the program in the future. Special outreach was made to colleges and universities through a partnership with the College and University Recycling Coalition, a membership organization serving campus recycling managers. 

The Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program awards recycling bins directly to recipients and leverages volume buying discounts. Since 2007, the program has placed more than 45,000 recycling bins in more than 560 communities across the U.S. A full list of the spring 2015 Recycling Bin Grant recipients and further information about the grant program is available at http://bingrant.org.

To learn more about Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine, visit www.kent.edu/cpm.

To learn more about Keep America Beautiful, visit kab.org.

For more information about the Coca-Cola Foundation, visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/foundation_coke.html.

For more information about the College and University Recycling Coalition, visit www.curc3r.org.

Calling All Bowlers

The Kent State Faculty/Staff Bowling League is now accepting new teams, members and substitute bowlers. Bowlers compete weekly on Monday evenings at 6:20 p.m. at Bill White’s Twinstar Lanes on St. Rt. 59 in Kent.

The Faculty/Staff Bowling League is open to all full-time, part-time and retired employees and their immediate family members. The league also is open to employees of the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED).

The 2015-16 Kent State bowling season begins Sept. 28 and continues through April 4, 2016. The cost is $13 a week.

If you are interested in participating, contact Deb Dobrilovic at ddobril1@kent.edu or Jason Forbes at jforbes@kent.edu.