eInside Events

Kent State University Marks disAbility Awareness Month

Kent State University students enjoy the company of a
therapy dog. Dogs on Campus Pet Therapy Program,
which offers an opportunity to relieve stress while
working with certified therapy dogs, will visit the first
floor lobby in the Kent Student Center as part of
activities marking disAbility Awareness Month.

Kent State University’s Student Accessibility Services (SAS) invites faculty, staff, students and other members of the community to celebrate disAbility Awareness Month during the month of October in an effort to highlight the wide-ranging abilities of people who may otherwise be considered "disabled." The word disAbility is intentionally spelled with a lowercase d and a capital letter A to emphasize ability.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Dogs on CampusTherapy Program, which offers an opportunity to relieve stress while working with certified therapy dogs, will visit the first floor lobby in the Kent Student Center. The program was developed by Kathy Adamle, Ph.D., faculty member in Kent State’s College of Nursing. Adamle’s research shows that many students consider their pets to be part of their families and that leaving home and their pet can add to the usual stress of any college student.

The month's featured event, Handicap This!, will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Ballroom. The performance features Mike Berkson and Tim Wambach, founding members of Handicap This! Berkson is an inspirational leader of the Keep On Keeping On Foundation, and an aspiring filmmaker and novelist, who was born with cerebral palsy. Wambach is lead actor and production manager of Handicap This! and president of the Keep On Keeping On Foundation. These inspiring friends educate, inspire, combat ignorance, break down barriers and wake up attitudes. Since debuting the production in 2010, more than 40,000 people have witnessed this amazing true story. They have been hired by high schools, colleges, universities and corporations to bring diversity and inclusion to the forefront. In this 78-minute journey, you will experience an entertaining message of possibilities. Interested participants can register for free admission today at https://ksudisabilityawarenss.eventbrite.com/.

Attend the panel discussion on Oct. 23 at 5 p.m., titled “Access Denied: The Intersection of Disability and Sexuality” at Room 310 in the Kent Student Center. This event is sponsored in conjunction with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Center’s Queering History Series. This event promises to offer open dialogue about subjects that are all too often taboo.

Head over to Dix Stadium on Oct. 26 and watch the Kent State vs. University of Buffalo football game. The Kent State Athletics and the disAbility Awareness Committee are teaming up to welcome community guests and students registered with Student Accessibility Services to tailgate beginning at 2:30 p.m. The game starts at 3:30 p.m. Students and guests are invited to help create a tunnel on the field for the Kent State football team and interact with members of the Kent State Athletic Department. Community guests and registered students with Student Accessibility Services must RSVP to scowlin1@kent.edu by Oct. 18 for reserved tickets and a coupon for two free pieces of pizza.

The following offices helped make this year’s disAbility Awareness Month possible: the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, University Health Services, the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Center for Student Involvement, Intercollegiate Athletics, Residence Services and the Office of Health Promotion/Active Minds.

For a complete listing of all events marking disAbility Awareness Month, visit www.kent.edu/sas/disability-awareness-month.cfm.

For questions about any of these events, contact Shannon Cowling at 330-672-3611 or scowlin1@kent.edu. For campus accessibility questions, contact Jackie Gee at 330-672-8667 or accessksu@kent.edu. American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will be available at all events.

Hoops 'n' Halloween Event to Kick Off Basketball Season

Kent State University men's and women's basketball will
kick off their seasons with a Hoops 'n' Halloween event
that is free and open to the public.

Kent State University will kick off its men's and women's basketball seasons by hosting a Hoops 'n' Halloween event on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 7-8:30 p.m. The first 200 fans through the door will receive a free Kent State mini basketball.

Hoops 'n' Halloween is free and open to the public. It will provide the community with a fun, safe place for children and adults to trick-or-treat. Fans also will have the opportunity to interact with the men's and women's basketball teams.

The event will begin with an hour of activities, including trick-or-treating throughout the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, with stops in a haunted hallway, men's and women's locker rooms and more. On-court activities with the players will include free throws, half-court shots and skills challenges. Guests are encouraged to dress up and participate in the costume contest, which will be judged by Kent State basketball players. Winning costumes will help judge the slam-dunk contest.

After team introductions and a few words from men's basketball head coach Rob Senderoff and women's basketball head coach Danielle O'Banion, the evening will conclude with an exciting slam dunk contest between members of the men's team followed by two fans shooting a half-court shot to win $15,000.

The Hoops 'n' Halloween event is part of a full day of Halloween fun that will start at 3:30 p.m. when Kent State's football team hosts University of Buffalo at Dix Stadium. The game will include a costume contest and other Halloween-themed events.

Log on to www.kentstatesports.com or follow @Golden_Flashes on Twitter for up-to-date information.

Can Sculpture Contest: Help the Needy in Portage County and Win $300

In conjunction with the Portage County Food Drive, the Kent State University United Way Campaign will hold a can sculpture contest on Monday, Oct. 21, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Risman Plaza. The Kent Student Center Ballroom will be the rain location. Builders of the winning can sculpture will be awarded $300.

Who Can Participate?

• Student Organizations
• Students
• Faculty and Staff
• Departments and Colleges
  

Rules: Building materials have to be nonperishable food items, paper products, personal care items and pet supplies – all items must be in their original wrappers, i.e., paper towels must have the plastic around them. All items will be donated to the Portage County Food Drive.

For registration information and detailed rules, contact Chris Hicks at chicks8@kent.edu or 330-672-7882.

Don’t want to create a sculpture? Help by donating nonperishable food and paper products or donate a few dollars to help the artists purchase the supplies needed for their designs.

To donate building materials or money, contact Hicksor Pat Nash at pnash@knet.edu or 330-672-8574.

The Portage County Food Drive will collect supplies on the Kent Campus from Oct. 14-25 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Look for their truck in front of the Kent Student Center on those dates. The truck will be moved to Dix Stadium for the Oct. 26 football game where donations can be dropped from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lunch and Learn: Using Social Media for Networking Your Scholarship

Kent State University’s Faculty Professional Development
Center will host a Lunch and Learn session to discuss how
social media can be used for scholarship purposes.

Kent State University’s Faculty Professional Development Center invites faculty members to attend a Lunch and Learn session with Tara Smith, Ph.D., Kent State associate professor of epidemiology/biostatistics, on Friday, Oct. 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in room 232 of Moulton Hall.

Smith will provide an overview of different social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.), give examples of how each can be used to find online peer/mentors and finally discuss how social media can be used to publicize your work to open doors for grants, publications, etc.

This interactive session will showcase personal examples and provide participants with ideas on how to get started. Bring your lunch and find out how to use social media to promote your work.

To register for the event, visit http://bit.ly/2013LL01.

For questions regarding this event, contact Eve Dalton at edalton@kent.edu.

For more information about Kent State’s Faculty Professional and Development Center, visit www.kent.edu/fpdc.

Hacksu to Hold the Largest Hackathon in the State of Ohio, Oct. 18-20

Hacksu leaders Daniel Gur, David Steinberg and Camden
Fullmer created SimpleWash, an app that “washes” any
obscenities from Facebook or Twitter accounts, during a
Hackathon event in Pennsylvania earlier this year.

Hacksu, a Kent State University student organization, will be holding a 40-hour hackathon in the University Library over the weekend of Oct. 18-20. The event is expected to be the largest hackathon in the state of Ohio with up to 15 universities participating and more than 150 students expected to attend. Kent State faculty and staff members are invited to attend the event.

“A hackathon is an event where programmers, interface designers and other digital and graphics specialists come together over a specified period of time to create innovative technologies,” says Hacksu member, Jake Tobin. “Hackathons are also great collaborative opportunities for students to learn from others and to develop new networking relationships.”

Products developed out of hackathons often have the potential to be turned into businesses. At the University of Pennsylvania PennApps 48-hour hackathon this past January, Hacksu leaders Camden Fullmer, David Steinberg and Daniel Gur created SimpleWash, an app that “washes” any obscenities from Facebook or Twitter accounts.

The Hacksu hackathon will take place on the fourth floor of the University Library, beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday night and will continue until Sunday afternoon with project presentations and the awarding of prizes for best products developed by teams.

The event is being underwritten with the support from the Knight Foundation, Hyland Software, Progressive Insurance, ImprovElectronics, Google, Amazon Web Services, Kent State’s Blackstone LaunchPad and University Libraries.

For more information on how to attend, visit http://hacksu.cs.kent.edu/kent-hack-enough-2013.

Religion and the Internet Is Subject of Oct. 22 Presentation

Peter J. Haas, Ph.D., will speak on the topic "The Ghost in
the Machine: How the Internet Is Changing How We Do
Religion” during the fall 2013 symposium on Oct. 22 hosted
by Kent State University’s Center for the Study of Information
and Religion in the School of Library and Information Science.

"The Ghost in the Machine: How the Internet Is Changing How We Do Religion” is the subject of the fall 2013 symposium hosted by Kent State University’s Center for the Study of Information and Religion in the School of Library and Information Science.

The talk will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in room 317 of the Kent Student Center. It is free and open to the public.

Symposium speaker Peter J. Haas, Ph.D., is Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies; chair, Department of Religious Studies; and director, Judaic Studies, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. His recent books include Human Rights and the World’s Major Religions: The Jewish Tradition and Responsa: Literary History of a Rabbinic Genre.

Religions historically have tended to be very local and congregationally based, says Haas. Scholars of religion thus have been trained to look at local culture and context. But what does this importance of place mean for religion on the Web? The Internet seems to make it possible for religious interaction to occur outside of any communal or shared religious space. What, then, do we learn about contemporary religion and its practice by observing its Internet manifestations?

Haas’s presentation is intended to begin a conversation about how we might rethink our definition of religion. To address this question, he will direct attention to the religious websites of three different religious communities: one Jewish, one Roman Catholic and one Islamic.

Haas received his doctorate in Jewish Studies from Brown University in 1980. Prior to enrolling at Brown, he attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati where he was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 1974. After ordination, he served on active duty as a U.S. Army chaplain for three years. He received his B.A. degree in Ancient Near East History in 1970 from the University of Michigan.

Haas joined the Department of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University in 2000, after serving on the faculty in Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University from 1980 to 1999. He has taught courses in Judaism, Jewish ethics, the Holocaust, and Western religion. He has published several books and articles dealing with moral discourse and has lectured in the United States, Germany and Israel. His most recent work is on the relationship between science and moral discourse.

The Center for the Study of Information and Religion (CSIR) is a research initiative of the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State. The center was founded in 2009 with the goal of facilitating research on the various institutions and agents of religion and their effect on social knowledge through the use, dissemination and diffusion of information.

For more information about Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science, visit www.kent.edu/slis.

Disabled American Veterans’ Mobile Service Office to Visit Kent State

The Disabled American Veterans’ Mobile Service Office will be making a stop at Kent State University on Oct. 22. As part of its tour of college campuses, the Mobile Service Office program will be outside of the Schwartz Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Mobile Service Office program travels the country providing counseling to veterans and their families and helping them to develop and file claims for benefits. One of the focal points of the program is to reach recently discharged veterans in college who are using the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Joshua Rider, assistant director of Kent State’s Center for Adult and Veteran Services, says that there are 647 GI Bill recipients at the Kent Campus.

“The Mobile Service Office provides a great opportunity for these veterans [on campus] and veterans in the community to learn about their benefits,” says Rider.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill, which was passed in July 2008, created a new education benefits program for veterans. Some aspects of the bill include tuition provisions, monthly living stipends and stipends for books and supplies. The amount of coverage from the bill is based on a tiered system that takes into account the time spent in active duty.

The Mobile Service Office is the first office of its kind and will travel to colleges and universities in five different states during its college tour. Jacob Drost, national service officer for the Disabled American Veterans, says that the Mobile Service Offices helps veterans of all ages.

“The idea of the Mobile Service Office is to get the information about benefits out to veterans while they are young because many of them are not aware of what is entitled to them,” says Drost.

The Mobile Service Office offers services free of charge and is open not just to veterans who are in school but also veterans who are interested in learning about different benefits.

“Veterans with veteran service organizations as an advocate have a 40 percent better chance of being successful in receiving benefits,” says Drost.

For more information about the Mobile Service Office or Disabled American Veterans, visit www.dav.org.