West Virginia University Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Thousands Gather At WVU To View Eclipse

Across the country, people took a moment out of their day on Monday to watch the solar eclipse.

West Virginia was no exception. The greens of the Mountainlair, West Virginia University’s student union, were completely covered by students and community members watching the sky.

Across the country, people took a moment out of their day on Monday to watch the solar eclipse.

West Virginia was no exception. The greens of the Mountainlair, West Virginia University’s student union, were completely covered by students and community members watching the sky.

Students like senior Claire Dursa made up the majority of the crowd. She works at the student union, and took advantage of her proximity to the event to come outside and see what was happening.

“If I’m correct with what I heard, I think the next one’s quite a few many years away,” Dursa said. “I think we’re going to enjoy this one as much as we can because you know that we won’t get to have this kind of experience for quite a long time.”

Jackson Taylor is a physics Ph.D. student at West Virginia University, and a graduate student assistant at the university’s planetarium. He said seeing the general public excited about astronomy makes the experience all the better.

“It’s great today, just the opportunity to reach so many people,” Taylor said “So many people are excited about astronomy. This is like astronomy day, it almost feels like. People are asking great questions. People are just having a great time.”

Taylor estimated more than a thousand people came to the Mountainlair, based on how many eclipse glasses were handed out.

“We gave out solar eclipse glasses, we gave out about 1100 to 1200 of them,” he said. “We ran out promptly, because there’s a lot of people here.”

Zach Tallman looks at the eclipse through a homemade pinhole projector April 8, 2024.

*Photo by Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Event attendees were given the opportunity to view the eclipse through specially filtered telescopes April 8, 2024.

*Photo by Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Taylor and others from the astronomy department set up solar telescopes looking at the sun, with special filters including a corona telescope, which lets viewers look at the sun through clouds. They also provided historical information about previous eclipses, including their scientific and societal importance through millennia of human observation.

Not everyone got a pair of eclipse glasses, but many were quick to share with friends and even strangers. Others like Zach Tallman took things into their own hands.

“I didn’t decide I was gonna watch the solar eclipse until this morning,” he said. “I was like nobody, nowhere is gonna have filters or glasses. I might as well just make something out of what I got here at my house.”

He made a pinhole projector using instructions from NASA and common household objects like a cereal box, aluminum foil and printer paper.

As the eclipse progressed, changes started to manifest even to the naked eye.

“You can definitely tell just looking out it’s definitely a lot dimmer,” Tallman said.

Close to the peak of the eclipse, a cloud started to make its way across the sun. For a moment, some in the crowd believed it to be totality, a complete covering of the sun that did not occur anywhere in West Virginia.

The cloud briefly allowed even those without eclipse glasses to see the crescent of the sun, filtered through the water vapor miles above.

“I’m seeing just a little tiny sliver of the sun, the rest of it is black,” said Jane Connor, who traveled up from Clarksburg. She knew an eclipse like this won’t happen until at least 2045, and that time far from West Virginia.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Connor said. “So my daughter and granddaughter and I came up here today to experience it with a lot of people. It’s really exciting.”

In this composite image, six discs taken with a solar lens filter show the progression of the eclipse April 8, 2024.

*Compositive image by Eric Douglas/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

WVU Students Gather For Solar Eclipse And Grandson Of Woody Williams Weighs In On Failed Legislation, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, across the country Monday, people took a moment out of their day to watch the solar eclipse. West Virginia was no exception, and at West Virginia University’s (WVU) Morgantown campus, a large crowd gathered to experience the celestial event. Chris Schulz has the story.

On this West Virginia Morning, across the country Monday, people took a moment out of their day to watch the solar eclipse. West Virginia was no exception, and at West Virginia University’s (WVU) Morgantown campus, a large crowd gathered to experience the celestial event. Chris Schulz has the story.

Also, in this show, the state Senate unanimously approved a resolution in February to place a statue of Hershel “Woody” Williams in the U.S. Capitol. Williams, who died in 2022 at age 98, was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. The measure, though, did not get a vote in the House of Delegates before the regular session ended. Curtis Tate spoke with Chad Graham, Williams’ grandson, about what happens next.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

University Students Receive Federal Study Abroad Scholarship

University students from across the state will get the chance to study abroad with a federal scholarship.

Eight students from three West Virginia universities will receive the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad in 2024.

A student from Marshall University (MU), six students from West Virginia University (WVU) and a student from Shepherd University (SU) were among the 1,700 recipients of the national scholarship.

Tyler Farley of Marshall University will study in Argentina, while Molly Conrad of Shepherd University will study in Greece.

From WVU:

Ariana Burks will spend two weeks this May in Thailand studying the importance of gastrodiplomacy, the practice of using food to share culture. She was also awarded a Critical Language Scholarship in 2023 and spent last summer studying Arabic in Oman.
Helen Knight will also travel to Thailand in May.
Kaleb Cole will travel to Australia this fall to study computer science.
Emily Diaz already used her scholarship to participate in the Honors College-sponsored Cross-Cultural Explorations: Germany and France program during spring break.
Marcus Hahn traveled to Edinburgh and London this spring as part of United Kingdom: Health Sciences in Great Britain.
Stephanie Sarfo was awarded a scholarship to study in South Korea this summer.

Available to undergraduates who receive federal Pell Grant funding, the Gilman Scholarship enables students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad with up to $5,000 to apply towards their study abroad or internship program costs.

The Gilman program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

AI Health Care Tool To Help Lower Patient Readmission Rates

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool being developed at West Virginia University (WVU) could lessen medication errors that send recently discharged patients back to the hospital.

A release from WVU Pharmacy stated at least 1.5 million people are harmed by medication errors every year, according to the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. They say the cost for treating these drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone is estimated at $3.5 billion annually.

At issue is the standard medication reconciliation clinicians perform before patients are discharged from the hospital. The prescription and treatment review is meant to develop a comprehensive but proper list of meds and treatments going forward.

The problem is, with multiple charting inputs, the procedure often becomes error prone. WVU Pharmacy professors say the AI tool will go through each of the patient’s records for the medication reconciliation process, building an alert system that shows if the patient has a higher chance of getting readmitted.

“This is where 85 percent of the errors happen,” said project leader Abdullah Al-Mamun, assistant professor in the WVU School of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy. “During a patient’s time in the hospital, medications are changed to improve the outcome. The patient cannot go home with the same amounts of medications they were given in the hospital. There should be an adjustment.”

Mamun said the AI tool will go through each of the patient’s records for the medication reconciliation process, building an alert system that shows if the patient has a higher chance of getting readmitted.

In the release, Al-Mamun points to studies showing a 50 percent reduction in 30-day readmission rates when a transition-of-care pharmacist took over medication reconciliation. His project aims to make the pharmacist’s job more efficient and effective through this AI-driven tool.

“That’s where the AI comes in,” Mamun said. “It will pull all this data and using different algorithms will build a profile for the patient. That will make the process more accurate and much faster and improve medication safety.”

With grant funding, the research team will first develop an alert system prototype. The next step will be to integrate the tool into a hospital’s electronic data system and run a pilot test.

WVU Governors Take First Steps In Search For New University President

Current President E. Gordon Gee’s contract ends June 30, 2025 after 11 years in the position.

The West Virginia University Board of Governors is seeking public comment on the rules that will guide the selection, employment, and evaluation of the university’s next president. At a special meeting Monday, the board announced the public comment period will continue through April 18.

Current President E. Gordon Gee’s contract ends June 30, 2025 after 11 years in the position. Gee was named interim president in December 2013, and he previously served as WVU’s president in the 1980s. He has also served as the president of four other universities across the country throughout his career.

The university has also released a Request for Procurement proposal to engage a national search firm to assist in the hiring of a new president.

The next regular Board meeting is scheduled for April 12.

Remembering Travis Stimeling And The Debate Over Weed Killer Dicamba, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, it was a shock when author, musician and West Virginia University professor Travis Stimeling died abruptly in November. They were 43. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold collected remembrances from colleagues, former students and friends. He shared them recently on Inside Appalachia.

On this West Virginia Morning, it was a shock when author, musician and West Virginia University professor Travis Stimeling died abruptly in November. They were 43. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold collected remembrances from colleagues, former students and friends. He shared them recently on Inside Appalachia.

Also, in this show, farmers in America’s heartland are watching the effects of a recent federal court ruling about a popular weed killer called dicamba. The decision stops the use of dicamba, saying the herbicide can drift to injure and kill desirable plants, bushes and trees. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now says despite the ruling, farmers may use existing supplies on their fields this year.

On the latest episode of Us & Them, we bring back a story from our archives about this ugly battle in farm country. Host Trey Kay and his colleague Loretta Williams head deep into farm country to hear from Bo Sloan. He’s the manager of a national wildlife refuge surrounded by farm fields where dicamba is sprayed. Here’s an excerpt from Us & Them’s “Dicamba Woes.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas is our news director and producer.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning