Union workers for Cabell Huntington Hospital went on strike Wednesday after contract negotiations fell through.
District 1199 of the Service Employee International Union announced that 1,000 clinical, service and maintenance workers voted to strike last month.
Since then, the union and the hospital have not been able to agree on a contract, which has now expired.
Union leaders say grievances against the hospital include an overall cut to benefits and regular disrespect to employees from management.
Yvonne Brooks, a union delegate, has worked with the hospital for 37 years. She says Cabell Huntington left employees with no choice but to strike.
“We’re taking care of this community, we want to continue to take care of the community. And it’s devastating to us to know that we’ve been pushed to the wall,” Brooks said.
Nurses are contractually unable to walk out, but many of them are supporting the strike as they can.
“We’ve had nurses that have been dropping off everything from firewood to food to water, just different supplies that we need,” said Amy Hayslett, an administrative organizer for SEIU District 1199. “But the best support that they can give them is just raising them up.”
David Adkins / WVPB
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SEIU District 1199 represents 1,000 clinical, service and maintenance workers at Cabell Huntington Hospital.
Workers say the hospital is scaling back their once guaranteed health insurance coverage for past and present employees. This will result in raised health insurance costs for multiple generations of retired workers.
The union says hospital workers have not gone on strike since 1998. Cabell Huntington Hospital is one of the top employers in the Huntington area.
The hospital administration says the strike hasn’t impacted daily operations. The hospital has hired more temporary workers to replace those walking out.
“We are disappointed that the comprehensive offer made by the hospital to the members of SEIU District 1199 Service unit was not ratified [Tuesday]. Cabell Huntington Hospital has worked in good faith since August,” said Tim Martin, the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer. “We welcome any members of the Service unit who wish to come to work to do so.”
The news that Brad Smith will become Marshall’s next president sparked high interest across the state as the corporate CEO returns home to helm his alma mater.
Community leaders in the Huntington area say they are optimistic for the future of the University.
“I’m a bit biased because I was on the Presidential Search Committee,” said Tracy Christofero, who serves as chair of Marshall University’s Faculty Senate, “What I like about him as a candidate is that he knows Marshall, he knows the environment. He knows the culture of West Virginia, and I believe he has always had the best interest of the university and the region at heart.”
Cathay Burns, Executive Director of the Huntington Municipal Development Authority, said that Brad Smith has been an advocate for revitalization by facilitating economic growth. She said Smith’s selection can create dual connectivities — “not only for the students, but also for business leaders and economic development leaders in the region. And not just the community, but the entire region, the entire state and the surrounding states.”
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams was similarly hopeful that Smith’s corporate leadership background will help him to shape a strong mindset for the future of the state. “Frankly, I can’t be more thrilled for Huntington and for the state of West Virginia that we have him right here to be able to help us create a culture of entrepreneurship,” Williams said.
Having Smith as Marshall’s president means his skills and knowledge can be passed down to students in the region, Williams said. He thinks Smith has the ability, “to lead, to teach, and also to reinforce that we can compete with anybody.”
Marshall University Photos
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Marshall University Photos
Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert hugging his successor Brad Smith
Despite the warm reception from community leaders and faculty, some students have expressed concern over Smith’s background outside of academia. Student body president Alyssa Parks said students are slowly warming up to the new president despite some initial hesitancy.
“Brad has been really open to talking to anyone who has had any concerns. I think that’s a really great quality in him. He’s open to tough conversations. He’s open to criticism,” Parks said. “Once he gets into the office, he can start talking to people and people really get to know him.”
The hiring model of selecting a non-academic to lead a public institution isn’t new, Christofero said. “Some percent of the universities now are run by people with non-traditional backgrounds in academia.”
Christofero doesn’t see Smith’s background as being a hindrance if he has the right people around him. “As long as we have a strong provost, that’s really who takes care of the academic side. Theoretically, the president certainly needs to deal with our donors and all of the university, the legislators, fundraising and promoting Marshall to help increase enrollment.”
Across the state, college campuses are taking an interest in competitive video gaming. Better known as esports, these competitions require strategic thinking, excellent hand-eye coordination, and team cooperation.
Professional level competitions have steadily grown alongside video games, but didn’t find serious financial backing until the past decade. Video game publishers, corporations, Silicon Valley giants, sponsors, and international leagues started investing in the industry as it grew in popularity. In the Internet age, esports have become a huge spectator draw with millions of viewers, and many colleges are building their own programs and varsity teams.
One such program is gaining relevance at Concord University, led by esports director Austin Clay. Concord’s esports program has grown to include multiple teams that specialize in different genres of games, from fighters that focus on individual competition like Super Smash Bros. to cooperative team shooters like Apex Legends and Call of Duty.
“My big thing a lot of people don’t realize — when people say esport, they think it’s just one game. It’s esports with an S,” Clay said.
In 2014, esports broke through to college campuses when Robert Morris University in Illinois formed the first varsity esports program and provided scholarships. Today there are almost 200 varsity esports programs around the nation.
In fall of 2019, Concord University became the first public institution in West Virginia to have a varsity and junior varsity esports program, as well as a new interdisciplinary esports management major. The major itself includes several study areas from within the esports field, from multimedia production to graphic design.
As the esports director at Concord, Clay teaches esports management classes at the school. He is responsible for sponsorships, recruiting, and facility upgrades, among other duties that are traditionally handled by a school’s athletic director.
“As collegiate esports evolve from being on a club-level to a varsity-level, you’re gonna see a rise in professionalism,” Clay said. “You’re just gonna see better, more organized, well-ran teams, which means competition is gonna be higher.”
Clay says his esports players usually earn an extra $2,000 to $4,000 in scholarship money on top of their existing academic scholarships.
“The big thing for us is getting West Virginia on the map,” Clay said. “It’s nice to know that even a small college with only 2,000 kids attending can get nationally recognized.”
Austin Clay
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Concord University esports player Liam Fogarty
Marshall and WVU are taking a cue from Concord and getting in on the esports boom. Many gamers from around the state are enthusiastic about this, including Artem Gavrilev, former esports captain at WVU.
“I am pretty excited to see schools open up esports majors or even scholarships sometimes,” he said. “Fifteen years from now, every school is gonna have an esports wing… I think that’s the future.”
Last Thursday, WVU announced an esports minor alongside a full-fledged esports team.
Marshall University is also developing its own esports program. The Marshall Esports Club Association is a growing student organization with around 410 members.
Caleb Patrick, executive director of the Marshall Esports Club Association, says that WVU’s announcement of its esport minor is a promising sign for the future of esports in the state.
“This has fanned the flames of our motivation, and inspired us to push even harder towards creating a program that’s unrivaled in terms of community, production efforts and quality, and pure competitive prowess,” he said.
Kevin Bryant, the competitive affairs manager for Marshall esports, said that esports is an equalizing competition for different size universities.
“It doesn’t matter what size school you are, it doesn’t matter your resources or capabilities,” Bryant said. “It really is a wild wild west of who can put in that more effort and who can want it more.”
Bryant sees esports as an opportunity for West Virginia to develop competitive in-state rivalries that have been absent in traditional college sports. “It’s been a long time since West Virginia has been given its proper rivalry. That’s left WVU to go on to make sure that their top 25 was secured in football every year,” Bryant said, “They didn’t want to jeopardize it with some podunk rivalry with Marshall University.”
To Bryant, the most important part of bringing esports to West Virginia campuses is to give West Virginian students the opportunity to enter the industry.
“Forcing these students to go out of state to chase opportunities that they love kinda sucks, right? I mean, out-of-state tuition is way more than in-state tuition. It would be really nice if we can give West Virginian students an opportunity to do what they love.”
WVU announced its first big esports recruit last Thursday. Top-ranked player Noah Johnson specializes in the popular football simulation game Madden NFL. Meanwhile, Marshall has recruited three players at the rank of Grand Champion III for the school’s Rocket League team.
The Marshall Esports Club Association, along with the older Marshall Smashers Student Organization, is hosting a statewide tournament of Super Smash Bros Ultimate called “Campus Clash,” on Nov. 13. Next semester, Campus Clash will be hosted by WVU.
The city of Huntington — seeking to bring together the creative mojo of local businesses, artists and musicians, celebrated the city’s culture with Localization, a pop-up show.
The event was started by Lilly Dyer and Heath Holley when they were art students at Marshall University.
Dyer said Localization began as a way to create opportunities for local artists. “It’s really hard to be an artist and a creative person in Appalachia,” Dyer said. “Being able to create Localization was a way to bring creatives together just to give people more opportunities to make work.”
Localization took place at CoalField Development’s West Edge Factory. The West Edge Factory is an old repurposed ceramic factory. CoalField Development is a non-profit with the goal of revitalizing Appalachia, largely by providing job training.
To Dyer, CoalField Development’s focus on community revitalization makes the West Edge the perfect place for Localization. “They’re doing great work there with the community and with Appalachia in general,” she said, “I think with their mission and our mission, being able to just ask them if we can have the pop-up show there has just been like a perfect fit.”
The Localization film festival showcased an hour’s worth of films. Four judges were present: filmmaker Tijah Bumgarner who teaches at Marshall; WSAZ Anchor Tim Irr; Director of the Alchemy Theatre Troupe Mike Murdock; and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams. Michael Valentine won first place for his film “Hive Mentality.”
This is the first Localization since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dyer says this Localization gives a glimpse into what artists in the Huntington area have worked on over the past two years. She said it was exciting to “give that space for people to showcase what they’ve been working on while in isolation, and being able to bring everyone together in a safe space to just connect again.”
Along with the vendors, around 20 artists showed their work as part of a curated show. Leah Gore, the curator, said the theme of Rebirth was chosen to evoke a Huntington renaissance. “We wanted to highlight Appalachian grit and our resilience,” she said.
“A room full of creation, art and music. It’s super special walking through that big space,” Holley said, noting the impact of “visual noise.”
“Everywhere you look is somebody just surrounded by what they spent so much time on making. They’re makin’ money doin’ what they doin.”
Gore called the event “a beautiful visual representation of our community and our individuals that are really focusing on their craft.”
She added: “I think it’s important to, as the audience, take a look around and appreciate others’ perspectives of life, how they’re living, and new ideas. It’s a visual representation of the times we live in, whether it be abstract, or physical, or subjective. It can be telling a story.”
As a means of guaranteeing access, Localization has no cover-charge. Dyer said the freedom and fluidity of Localization is key to its success. “They’re using that money towards other artists and being able to fund their work as well. Even if you are kinda broke at the moment, you’re welcome to come in as well. That connection itself of having people in person and having that experience is very exciting to me.”
More than 400 people attended this year’s Localization, and organizers said they expect growth next year.
A Marshall University professor is one of two U.S. scholars to make a major discovery on one of America’s quintessential American poets.
Stephen Schöberlein, director of digital humanities at Marshall University, and Zachary Turpin, a professor of English at the University of Idaho, have created buzz in the literary world after their discovery of new texts penned by American poet Walt Whitman.
Their research appears in the latest edition of the journal Walt Whitman Quarterly Review.
Whitman is considered the father of American free-verse poetry and one of the leading artists in modern literature. One of Whitman’s best known poems is “O’ Captain my Captain,” which was famously featured in the 1989 movie, “Dead Poets Society,” starring Robin Williams. Whitman published this poem and others in his first volume of poetry, Leaves of Grass in 1855.
Schöberlein said that Whitman is “one of the first major queer poets in the United States.” Whitman set his style apart from other poets through the way he broke established rules. According to Schöberlein, “most of his poetry famously doesn’t rhyme. Most of his poems are just long lines.”
Whitman was controversial during his time. In his personal life, Whitman loved conflict. He often would get into fist-fights. Whitman was also met with backlash from his poetry. Schöberlein notes that Whitman was, “A poet of the body. He celebrates the human body and all of its nooks and crannies. Often very sexually explicit.”
In reaction to the content of his poems, Whitman was banned from Boston. Schöberlein said that Whitman, “got into a fight with the Boston postmaster who banned his book for being pornography.”
Whitman lived mostly in New York City. Before becoming a poet, Whitman moved to New Orleans for three months to work as an editor. His time living in New Orleans and travelling along the Mississippi River is believed to have galvanized him as a poet. This period leading up to his first publication is shrouded in mystery.
“The years that lead up to Leaves of Grass have always been a special interest to scholars because everyone wants to know what went into the pot,” Turpin said. “It’s a really kitchen sink volume of poetry but it feels so fresh and vibrant and unusual that you wonder where it came from.”
While studying digitally archived documents through newspapers.com, Turpin and Schöberlein discovered letters to the Daily Crescent that were possibly written by Whitman. Turpin said that the letters, “just had the whiff of Whitman to it. Their pseudonym. The things they write about.” According to Turpin, the letters were signed Mannahatta and Manhattan. Whitman liked to refer to cities by their native names, and has often done so with New York City. After noticing the pen name, Turpin and Schöberlein cross-referenced the style and word choice of the letters to other documents Whitman wrote.
Turpin said the letters demonstrate that, “very likely, Whitman continued his relationship with New Orleans.” According to Turpin, the newly discovered letters reflect how New York and New Orleans affected Whitman as a poet.
“You can sense this connection between these two major cities,” he said. “They’re both maritime ports, they’re both relatively liberal bubbles full of creativity and change and growth.”
To Turpin, the letters further demonstrate how the character of both cities appear in the character of Whitman’s poetry.
Thousands of documents are archived to the internet every day, thanks to a network of researchers, librarians, and individuals scanning or transcribing documents online. According to Turpin, this could potentially mean more unknown documents in what scholars refer to as The Great Unread. “It’s literally right there for anyone to trip over,” he said, “I think it speaks both to the value of freely available open access archives but also just how big of an expanse there is.”
Before the internet, being able to research archived documents was privileged for those with direct access, time, and a staff to help look through them. “Equal access, or more equal access is really changing the game for a lot of scholars,” Turpin said. “You don’t even have to travel to the public library in New York in order to find some major text that no one knew was part of American literature.”
Turpin and Schöberlein are continuing their work producing an edited publication of Whitman’s writings, including some of the discovered pieces, and a new monograph on Whitman’s relationship to New Orleans for the University of Iowa’s Whitman Series.
Every semester, Marshall University adds a significant amount of waste to landfills from items left behind by students as they move out from residence halls. Students often leave behind clothing, bed covers, furniture, and appliances.
But in the spring of 2021, the university was able to reduce the waste by having students donate their items to the new Marshall thrift store, run by Marshall’s sustainability department.
“It’s $3 in HerdPoints, which is a Marshall currency. You buy the bag with that and then you fill that bag to capacity,” said Nick Matawa, a student at Marshall University. “Next time you come, and if you still happen to have that bag, it’s $1.”
Waste was reduced by 50 percent, says Logan Pointer – the thrift store manager, who said feedback from students and faculty has been positive. “Everybody’s been really proud of this project,” he said.
Matawa previously worked for Marshall facilities, and has personally witnessed the usual amount of waste. “Traditionally a lot of people leave — you wouldn’t believe how much that they leave. Microwaves, mini-fridges, clothing all get yeeted into a big old Dumpster and dragged off to a landfill,” he said.
Luke Campbell, another Marshall student, said he’s found bargain appliances he can use. “I was thinking about getting a sewing machine or something to try and it was three bucks,” Campbell said. “You’d probably be paying for something of similar quality, like 40 or so bucks from Walmart. So seeing this here for that cheap is a huge help.”
The thrift shop is located at 331 Hal Greer Boulevard across from Marshall University.
Marshall University’s Sustainability Department has set a goal of making the school free of plastic waste by 2026.
