Tag: Marshall

Community Colleges and Universities See Advantages of Working Together

  Community Colleges around the state are joining forces with universities and 4-year colleges to form bonds that will help students continue their education past an associate’s degree.

Last week Mountwest Community and Technical College in Huntington signed an articulation agreement with the College of Arts and Media at Marshall. More specifically the agreement pertains to students in journalism fields such as advertising, public relations, online journalism and radio/television production and management. The 2+2 agreement allows students in those fields at Mountwest to transfer their associate’s degree credits directly to the Marshall school of journalism where they can then work toward their bachelor’s degree.

The idea isn’t new for schools throughout the state. Agreements like West Virginia Northern Community and Technical Colleges 2+2 agreement in Social work with West Virginia University, or Southern West Virginia Community and Technical Colleges agreement with Concord University in Elementary Education are becoming the norm. Jim Skidmore is the Chancellor for West Virginia Community and Technical Colleges.

“I don’t think there should be any doors closed for students to pursue additional higher education, so these types of agreements just make it possible to do that,” Skidmore said.

Skidmore said these agreements are paramount to the success of the students who have a need to start at Community and Technical colleges around the state.

"It promotes the relationships and partnerships with them and when they work out these partnerships it's a win-win for everybody," Skidmore said.

“It promotes the relationships and partnerships with them and when they work out these partnerships it’s a win-win for everybody,” Skidmore said.

Marshall University President Stephen Kopp understands the need for these agreements.

“We have three of them right now in the college of business, this adds another one and we’re looking at adding others as we go along, they’re a good partner,” Kopp said.

Keith Cotroneo is President of Mountwest Community and Technical College. He said agreements like these are key for their ability to help students continue their education past Mountwest.

“These program specific pathways arm them with the information that they need to take the right courses and not stumble around and get confused as they move forward during the degree program,” Cotroneo said.

According to the official agreement, the deans of both programs will continually monitor the curriculum at both institutions to ensure consistency and program quality. 

State groups rally at Marshall for abortion rights

Groups from around the region converged on Marshall University’s campus this afternoon to rally for abortion rights.More than 100 participants and almost…

Groups from around the region converged on Marshall University’s campus this afternoon to rally for abortion rights.

More than 100 participants and almost 15 different groups from around the state attended the rally on Marshall’s campus. Their mission was to alert young female students about the possible attack on the right to obtain an abortion in the state. Pam Van Horn is the Public Affairs Director for WV Planned Parenthood.

“We wanted to make sure that the young people here at Marshall University were aware of what was going on because this age group is the one that is most specifically affected by anything that may take away their freedom to make reproductive decisions,” Van Horn said.

Other groups like the WV Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Fairness West Virginia took part in the rally.

Civil Rights Activist visits Marshall as part of Constitution Week

Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary…

  Civil Rights Activist Joan C. Browning visited Marshall this week as part of constitution week. The Freedom Rider told her story on the 50th anniversary of the rides.

Joan C. Browning was a Freedom Rider. The Riders were a group of men and women who boarded buses and trains headed for the Deep South in 1961 to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities. What makes Browning’s perspective different though is that she’s Caucasian.

“I just felt lucky to see what was going to happen and to be able to choose a role for me in it and to be able to be in a group with people that I knew would support me. I felt very lucky, I really felt like I was in the right place doing the right thing and whatever happened then or later, for one time in my life I did the right thing,” Browning said.

Browning was at Marshall University this week as part of Constitution Week. While on campus she spoke to classes about what her experiences were like.

“I was one of the few white people that was involved in the black freedom struggle in the south in the early 1960’s and the sit-in movement and I was a Freedom Rider and picketed and things of that nature. I’m sort of that oddity that you don’t expect when you read about the civil rights movement,” Browning said.

And she gave two lectures, one on civic responsibility and the other on the relationship between the constitution and civil rights.

Browning joined the Freedom Riders after attending an all-black Methodist Church in Milledgeville, Georgia. As a result of her church attendance, she was thrown out of Georgia State College for Women. In June of 1961, she moved to Atlanta where she discovered the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that would later organize the Freedom Rides. Browning says it excites her when she sees young people following standing up for things they believe in.

“When the occupy movement first started I was very excited, I thought it was possibly the beginning of a mass resurgence of young people and empower people to take to the streets literally. I’m at the point now where I can’t march very long, but I can be in the back cheering people on and doing whatever I can to encourage it and that’s one reason I talk to young people is to try to encourage them,” Browning said.

Browning volunteered with SNCC on projects in Georgia and Alabama, worked in human relations and anti-poverty programs throughout the sixties and was an organizer of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

In the end, Browning said she still speaks to classes and groups because she wants people to know no matter their situation they still have power.

“I want them to know that young people have power, poor people have power, old people have power, and you know the great panthers came out of the model of the freedom rides. I want people to feel like this is your world and you have a chance and a right to make it the way you want it to and find other people and don’t give up, don’t give in,” Browning said.

Browning now lives in Greenbrier County and has a degree from West Virginia State University. 

Rooftop garden to play a role in Marshall’s storm water management

Marshall University’s college of science is conducting an experiment that they hope will help them in the future.

The Marshall University College of Science installed a green roof in a small space just off the second floor of the science building. It’s the beginning of an experiment that will illustrate what it will take to maintain larger green roofs on the biotech building on campus. That building is being constructed. It’ll also play a role in Marshall’s continued effort to better handle storm water.

Chuck Somerville is the Dean of the College of Science.

“This is a demonstration, it’s a small area and it’s not going to have a big impact on storm water on campus, but it’s in a visible place and people can come by and see it and we can put up signage about what a green roof does and how it works,” Somerville said. “So we can get a lot of educational bang for their buck, rather than storm water treatment or storm water retention.”

It’s a process that has been several years in the making. Somerville said after seeing facilities out of the state that were using the idea, they thought they should try it on the science building.

“We’ve had to go to a company that produces the plants and does the design and go through the design process and just growing the plants is about a 6 to 8 month project there,” Somerville said.

Eventually Somerville said the roof was ready for planting. They recently put in plants that include geraniums and irises. He said after going through the process of making sure the roof could handle the weight, water and soil, they now know what to expect at the new biotech facility.

“We have a green roof planned for the new building actually it’s going to be engineered into the structure so this was an add-on after this building was long since built,” Somerville said.

Biotech building in the process of being constructed.

Travis Bailey is an Environmental Specialist with the Health and Safety Department on campus. He’s tasked with helping the campus become more responsible for storm water. He said this is just one of the newer ways to deal with the water.

“A green roof is basically to capture the water and the let plants absorb it and if it doesn’t let it slow down and filter the water out, filter out the pollutants that are in the air, rather than that water going straight down the drain and potentially out to the river,” Bailey said. “It’s not being absorbed by the soils and filtered out, but for the most part we’re hoping that the plants will uptake and use most of that water,” Bailey said.

Huntington has a combined sewer system, meaning sanitary sewage and storm water runoff collect in the same pipes. Because of this the Environmental Protection Agency charges organizations like Marshall to collect the first inch of water for each building. So Bailey and others have started projects like the green roof, a rain garden and other means to collect this water all around campus.

Bailey said he hopes these projects show it’s possible to do these projects.

"And to show people a green roof is doable, it is not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing," Bailey said.

“And to show people a green roof is doable, it’s not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing, we’re showing that you can do it here, it can be done here and same thing with the rain gardens,” Bailey said. “People read about them or have heard about them and it’s like you can’t do it here, but we’re trying to show that it can be done here and we’re gearing up to do some more hopefully.”

Bailey said green roofs also can have a positive effect on stopping ultraviolet rays from harming the roof. 

Biology professor at Marshall receives grant to examine rattlesnakes

One Marshall University professor’s research is pretty unique. She’s examining the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which isn’t in West Virginia. The…

  One Marshall University professor’s research is pretty unique. She’s examining the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which isn’t in West Virginia. The research will take her to the Marine Corps training base in South Carolina. 

Jayme Waldron is an assistant professor of biology and conservation biologist. As a Marshall University undergrad she took part in studies looking at salamanders. That research took her to South Carolina where she gradually looked at reptiles and then rattle snakes.

“Did research for my dissertation at Clemson University and I never stopped, kind of got obsessed with it, but they’re fascinating creatures that are horribly misunderstood,” Waldron said. 

“They’re really not that scary, don’t get me wrong you should respect them, but they’re not out to get you, they try to avoid people,” Waldron said.

Waldron’s newest research project will allow her and a team of researchers to continue looking at eastern diamondback rattlesnakes at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. There she’ll look at effects of military land use on the rattle snakes. The Marine Corps often changes the base’s landscaping for various training exercises. The Corps wants the research done to try to prevent any encounters with the rattlesnakes while also making sure they’re not threatening the eastern diamondback population.

She said what they’ve found is unique.

“So they wanted to monitor them to make sure there wouldn’t be conflicts. So it started out with mark-recapture surveys and we were like wow they have a good population of diamondbacks. Why aren’t there conflicts?” Waldron said. “There’s never been a bite on the island and there really aren’t any conflicts and as it turns out the rattlesnakes are really good at avoiding people even though there a lot of people. We’re not exactly sure about the details of the mechanism and how they’re so good at avoiding people, we’re trying to figure that out now”

Due to declining numbers and widespread loss of habitat, the species of eastern diamondbacks are under review for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. So the question is — how does she and her team catch one? The answer is — very carefully. 

“The way we catch them is we encourage them to go into this long clear plastic tube and they think it’s a hole and they’re escaping,” Waldron said. “You put them on the ground and you touch them on their tail and sometimes that doesn’t work, it’s an art to get them in the tube sometimes.”

Waldron has been studying the area since 2008, but the most recent $87,800 grant from the U.S. Department of the Army allows her and a team of researchers to continue to track the snakes. For the study Waldron said they’ll conduct mark-recapture surveys and use radio telemetry to monitor free-ranging diamondbacks over a period of two years. They will also monitor the vegetation associated with how the marine uses the land.

Waldron said the eastern diamondback can’t be found in West Virginia, but timber rattlesnakes can be found here.   

The eastern diamondback’s habitat is in the southeastern part of the U.S. along the coasts of North Carolina down through Florida and along the Gulf Coast, including on several U.S. Department of Defense Installations.

Waldron said there research will be used in different ways.

“So far we haven’t detected any negative effect to training operations on eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, good right? Check. Now with any changes that might occur to training operations or habitat use, is that going to effect the rattlesnakes? Which they’re a candidate species,” Waldron said. “So the application is all management driven, management of training and management of natural resources.”

Waldron says the results will be used by other military bases on the east coast and along the gulf in how they deal with the snakes and their training practices. 

Are smoking bans working at Marshall and WVU?

With smoking bans at both of the state’s largest higher education institutions in full effect since July 1st, it’s now that students are back on both campuses that the real test begins.

Since July 1stMarshall’s campuses have observed a tobacco ban, banning students, professors and staff from smoking anywhere on campus. But only since the beginning of last week have students inundated the main campus in Huntington after the start of the fall semester. Marshall University student Will Vance said he’s just had to change his routine.

“During the day I guess out of courtesy I walk out to the perimeter of the school, you know there going from having three people outside a building to having a perimeter of people around the school smoking, I don’t really think that helps the schools image,” Vance said.

Amy Saunders is director of student health on campus. She said people smoking on the public sidewalks around campus isn’t new, but it’s not nearly the problem some might think.

“I don’t really even think it’s been that hard for us, it seems like it’s been a really good thing, but what you have happen is when you change the environment, you have the culture and the norm start to change and the culture isn’t really supportive of that behavior and so hopefully what we’ll see down the road is more people will adapt to the healthy behavior.,” Saunders said.

Saunders said they don’t want to have to start citing students or add the rule to the student code of conduct. Instead, she says university officials feel like if it’s given time things will gradually change on campus, as they already are.

Vance said he’s not sure how things will work on campus in the coming months. He says students might become more tempted to smoke near the buildings instead of outside of campus as fall changes to winter.

“Especially when it starts getting cold, people aren’t going to want to walk all the way out there, people are just going to smoke out front, there’s not much the school can do about it right now and I hope that they don’t,” Vance said.

Saunders said she hopes the colder months have the opposite effect.

“We don’t want to go that route to have to do citations or anything, that will be difficult to do, our hope is that we’ll see a lot of people that will want to quit when that times comes, is that addiction going to be so strong that it will compel you to go out there on the sidewalk? And for some people, yes unfortunately it will, but for some people that might be a game changer for them, where they say I want to change this behavior,” Saunders said.

Marshall’s student health department is offering smoking cessation classes throughout the year to help those that decide the new ban is the time to change things. 

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