WVU Story Archives - Page 36 of 39 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Pearl S. Buck: Someone Every West Virginian Should Know, Why and How

West Virginia University announced a partnership with West Virginia Wesleyan College that will honor and celebrate, preserve and offer for research a collection of works by Pulitzer Prize winning author and Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck.

Message from WVU: In order to preserve and promote the legacy of Pearl S. Buck, West Virginia University and West Virginia Wesleyan College are collaborating with the Pearl S, Buck Birthplace Foundation to increase use of the Pearl S. Buck Collection and stimulate Pearl S. Buck studies in West Virginia and beyond. Goals of this partnership include archival preservation, the creation of a Pearl S. Buck Collection website, and the development of education and outreach initiatives including research grants, a biennial conference and award, and a new publication series through the WVU Press.

West Virginia’s Pearl

Pearl S. Buck was born in 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Three months later, her missionary parents moved with her to China where she spent the large majority of the first 40 years of her life. Can West Virginians claim her as one of their own? A resounding “yes” could be heard in the halls of the WVU library which will now be home to many of her writings.

WVU President Gordon Gee kicked off a recent event in Morgantown to celebrate the collection of the late author. Gee spoke about Buck’s connection to West Virginia.

Many of Pearl Buck’s life experiences and political views can be discovered in her writings. She covered a wide range of topics from immigration, adoption, and war, to women’s rights.

In fact, in a 1958 interview with Pearl Buck, Mike Wallace tried to pin her down as a militant, man-hating feminist. Buck was very reserved and rejected the title. She said she worried for men and women in a society trying to prepare them both for a manner of success defined in patriarchal terms. Then… she transcended the question completely and spoke on the lonely human condition in the West and the burdens of freedom:

A Rock Star

Buck began to write in the twenties and continued to write until her death in March of 1973, authoring some 100 works. Her first novel, East Wind, West Wind, appeared in 1930. Her second book The Good Earth stood on the American list of best sellers for a long time and earned her several awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. Then in 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

“She was sort of a rock star at that time, and so when she spoke there were always people listening,” said acting president of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, Kirk Judd. He said Pearl was truly a citizen of the globe. Armed with fame and considerable fortune, a global perspective, an education, and steeped in West Virginian morals, she became an outspoken humanitarian. Judd said she’s considered by many to have been wise beyond her years.

The Collection

The Buck collection of manuscripts and other documents which were housed for many years at WV Wesleyan found a new home at WVU. The collection is owned by the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, and includes over 70 of her works including novels, short stories, and children’s books—all of which will also be made available online.

Jolie Lewis is a former board member of the foundation who came up to see the collection dedicated in Morgantown.

Lewis also echoed remarks uttered during the dedication, imparting that Pearl S. Buck’s work is a treasure and a source of inspiration for all West Virginians.

Wild Ginseng, Wood Thrushes, and Climate Change: A Survival Story

Some researchers at West Virginia University have discovered that wild ginseng—a native and valuable medicinal plant—could be using specific birds to catch a ride into climates for which it’s better suited.

Eberly Professor of Biology at WVU, Jim McGraw, has been studying ginseng from every angle for 18 years. A simple question lead McGraw and researchers Amy Hruska and Sara Souther to ask other questions, which is lead them to discover an ecological survival story.

STUDY 1: Fruit

Why does ginseng bear bright red berries?

“When a plant evolves fleshy fruit like that, it usually means there’s some kind of animal interaction going on, but we had no idea what that was,” said McGraw.

So all around wild fruiting ginseng cameras were set, and for three years tripped by the occasional raccoon, opossum, mouse, or turkey. But there was one pretty regular visitor: the Wood Thrush, (a cousin of the Robin, actually, but with superior vocal abilities on account of a double-set of vocal chords).

McGraw says after analyzing some 900 photos, they discovered the thrushes were in fact seduced by the bright red ginseng berries.

STUDY 2: A Seed Study

How do seeds survive the thrushes, or do they?

McGraw and researcher Amy Hruska found out there were captive thrushes living at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, and convinced the good folks there to let them feed ginseng berries to the birds.

http://youtu.be/FTQUlvCQPC4

Video actually shows regurgitation of seed.

The researchers observed that the birds would eat the whole berry but 5 to 30 minutes later…

“They would actually sit on a branch and start flipping their bills together and a seed would pop out,” McGraw said, “And they were completely viable seeds.”

So the research team found ginseng’s wild seed dispensers!

STUDY 3: Thrush Tracking

Where and how far do the thrushes wander?

…This study is underway…

Understanding thrush activity is the latest query commanding attention in the larger effort to study a threatened and valuable plant. Wild populations are increasingly rare. We know overharvesting, deer browsing, and loss of habitat are major reasons for declines. But McGraw thinks this thrush research might shed light on another threat to wild ginseng populations.

“Wood thrushes, as common as they are, have actually declined by 50 percent over the last fifty years,” McGraw said. “They’re one of the poster children for major songbird decline in the Eastern deciduous forest.”

Losing so many birds is very troubling because ginseng populations may well rely on thrushes not only to help disperse their seeds, but also to help them adapt to a changing climate.

Wild ginseng’s range stretches from eastern Canada south through the eastern United States. But genetically, those ginseng populations vary and over ages have adapted to their specific regions. McGaw suspect thrushes will play an important role in helping ginseng survive by helping it migrate from their warming regions into cooler climates. If the birds themselves can survive.

Actor Chris Sarandon Returns to WVU for Staged Reading

Notable actor and Beckley-native Chris Sarandon will be in Morgantown this week presenting a play to the public, for free …about physical and sexual abuse.

The play Not Someone Like Me is a collection of monologues about the real experiences of physically and sexually assaulted women, and how they deal with life afterwards. Sarandon explains, it’s meant to be read and performed to benefit rape crisis centers. He’s been working for several years with his friend and the playwright Susan Rice to develop the show.

“Susan actually approached me and said, I’d love for you to direct this. I said, ‘Oh Susan, shouldn’t it be a woman?’ And she said, ‘No, actually, the audience of the play should be men,’” Sarandon remembered.

This week’s readings at West Virginia University will be the college premiere of the show. Sarandon is the first College of Creative Arts alumnus to take part in the college’s new Alumni Residency Series, during which alumni of the schools of art and design, music, and theatre and dance are returning to work with students. The cast will include students and faculty members from the School of Theatre and Dance.

The staged readings will take place Sept. 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Creative Arts Center’s Antoinette Falbo Theatre. Following each performance, Sarandon and the cast will also take part in a “talk back” with the program coordinator for WVU’s Sexual Assault Prevention Program.

WVU Healthcare To Hold Open Interview Session Wednesday

Open interview sessions for approximately 300 positions at WVU Healthcare will be held Wednesday.WUV Healthcare includes the teaching hospitals and…

Open interview sessions for approximately 300 positions at WVU Healthcare will be held Wednesday.

WUV Healthcare includes the teaching hospitals and clinics for WVU’s health professions schools.

The job interviews will be held from 10 am to 6 pm at the WVU Erickson Alumni Center.

Per diem, casual, part-time, and full-time positions are available, including management, direct patient care, support services, and administrative.

Support services applicants, such as housekeeping, nutrition services, clerical, valet, and information technology are encouraged to attend between 10 am and 1 pm.

Clinical applicants, including nurses, physician assistants, medical assistants, clinical associates, and laboratory, pharmacy, and surgical technicians, are encouraged to attend between 2 pm and 6 pm.

What is the Future for Higher Ed in West Virginia?

College tuition is going up across the country – and across West Virginia. Recently, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WVHEPC) approved increases for several colleges and universities. Unfortunately, these increases come as many schools have seen a decline in enrollment.

On June 16, the WVHEPC approved tuition increases. Here’s a look at the increases at each school:

Marshall University: 9.1% (School of Pharmacy only)
West Liberty University: 9.1% (Nursing program only)
West Virginia University: 7.8%
Fairmont State University: 6.6%
Concord University: 5%
Shepherd University: 4.96%

And as the cost of college continues to rise, the commission’s website says enrollment at universities across the state has dropped by over 2,500 in the past three years.

Is the rise in tuition to blame for this downward trend? A report finds that West Virginia is one of only eight states that continues to reduce the amount of money going towards higher education in its budget as the economy recovers from the Great Recession. For this year, there was a 3.75 percent reduction.

Kent Gamble is the Director of Enrollment at Concord University. He says the school had little choice when deciding to increase tuition.

“The cost of business keeps going up and up, whether it’s a gas bill or whether it’s [an] insurance bill, and so I think that the university has to make an adjustment,” Gamble says.

Concord is considered a regional university. In other words, it serves the counties that surround it. Regional universities are often some of the biggest employers in the areas they serve. Ideally, graduates from these universities can then go on to work in the state.

Gamble says that universities like Concord are vital to West Virginia’s recovery for this reason.

“We have a responsibility to drive the economy just like the mom and pop business does, or the larger employer in that county,” Gamble says. “So I think we have a responsibility to drive students to get a degree, to get a four-year education or a masters.

One way to avoid tuition increases is obvious – increase enrollment. But Gamble realizes that the old technique of attracting student right out of high school is not broad enough.

“I think that for any institution in West Virginia that’s small, diversifying its enrollment is going to be key to ten-year success, or five-year success, or one-year success,” Gamble says. “You can no longer rely on the first time freshman to drive enrollment. Even though it’s a big part of your enrollment, you can’t rely on it.”

WVHEPC Chancellor Paul Hill has high hopes for the future of higher education in West Virginia despite the declining state support. He says that there are positive signs of an economic upturn on the horizon.

“We think there is some optimism within the state budget in the long term while the state budget office indicates we’re still going through this downturn, there are some signs that the budget will recover in the next year or so and we would hope that there would not be any further cuts to higher education in West Virginia,” Hill says.

Hill and his team at the WVHEPC have made a master plan for increasing enrollment at West Virginia universities. Here’s a breakdown of the plan:

Access: Increase access to postsecondary education for West Virginians.
Success: Increase the amount of students graduating from universities in the state.
Impact: Increase the amount of graduates from West Virginia universities who contribute to the state’s workforce after obtaining a degree.

Hill says the actual process of learning will change, having an impact on the future of higher education.
“I think [in] the future we’re going to see a lot more use of technology in our education, we’re already seeing a lot now,” Hill says. “But I think we’ll see a lot more in what we call ‘blended learning opportunities,’ more online opportunities.

And what about the actual college students? Why are they here? Jasmine Jimenez is from Connecticut and attends Concord University. She decided to attend college in West Virginia because of the lower costs.

Jimenez works on campus to help pay for her education expenses.

“The tuition increases are coming at every state, but it also has a lot to do with the cost of living and the poverty levels and what not in those states, and Connecticut versus West Virginia is always going to be cheaper,” Jimenez says.

But Jimenez also remembers some of the things that were discouraging her from attending college back in high school. For her, there seems to be a lack of coordination between the colleges and high schools.

“High school students are told that this is the price, this is how much it’s going to go up every year and that’s all they see,” Jimenez says. “They don’t do get any sort of encouragement that they could afford these schools and go to schools and they won’t have to be in debt.”

Despite the nearly annual tuition increases at its colleges, West Virginia continues to be a higher education bargain as in Jimenez’s case. And attracting more out-of-state students could be a key to increasing college enrollment because the state does not produce enough high school graduates each year to keep its college classrooms filled.

Will West Virginia Ever See A New Coal-Fired Power Plant?

There’s been much deliberation over the last week regarding new Environmental Protection Agency proposals for regulating coal fired power plant carbon emissions. State officials are very discouraged by the ideas. But as Ben Adducchio reports, there are also proposals on the table for how to regulate future power plants, and some are asking whether any will be built again in West Virginia.

The EPA has issued new ideas on how to regulate existing power plants, which would call for a 30 percent national reduction on carbon emissions by 2030, from 2005 levels. Congressmen David McKinley and Nick Rahall co-introduced legislation to essentially strike down not only emissions standards concerning current power plants, but additional proposals that would apply to future power plants.

Those proposals came out last year, and would require new plants to use cleaner methods—like carbon capture and storage, and natural gas technologies, to ensure fewer carbon emissions. Jamie Van Nostrand with the West Virginia University Center for Energy and Sustainable Development says these new technologies will present many challenges for anyone wanting to build a new plant.

“It’s very difficult given the rules under 111 b, which really restrict the greenhouse gas emissions associated with new power plants, and pretty much require carbon capture and sequestration, either through a gasification process before you generate electricity, or capturing it and sequestering it afterwards, and those are very very expensive, particularly in the absence of having oil recovery nearby,” said Van Nostrand.

American Electric Power attempted this type of technology at a plant in southern West Virginia. That didn’t completely succeed, due to funding issues. Jeffrey La Fleur with AEP says the technology needs more research and funding.

“I think we would be a lot further down the road now if we had a little more foresight on the government’s part to develop the technology. For new coal units, the EPA proposed rule is that you will have to have carbon capture to build a new plant and because of all of this has stopped, that technology is not commercially available,” he said.

But Jamie Van Nostrand believes with the new power plant proposals, it can be done.

“The CCS technology is continuing to improve, there’s a lot of money being spent on clean coal technology, and I think the expectation is down the road, the regulation under 111 b would allow the technological advances that would allow a coal plant to be constructed in the future,” he said.