| February 23, 2001 | VOL. 17, NO. 26 |
LSU has recently awarded several of its faculty members a new kind of grant that will help the University better accomplish its mission to reach out to the community.
Service-Learning Incentive grants, worth up to $1,000 each, were awarded to 15 faculty members who developed new courses that incorporate service into classroom instruction or who redesigned courses previously taught to include community-based learning. The grants will fund courses taught during the 2001-2002 academic year.
Still fairly recent to the academic scene, the teaching method referred to as service-learning gives students the opportunity to enhance classroom learning by applying textbook theory to helping the community, said Jan Shoemaker, LSU English instructor and academic service-learning coordinator for the University’s Program of Learning Through Service.
Rewarding faculty for what many colleges and universities have begun to call the “scholarship of engagement”– defined as teaching, research and service that foster interaction with the community – is a growing trend across the country, according to Shoemaker.
Receiving grants were Jill Howard Allor, Curriculum and Instruction; Leigh Clemons, Theater; Richard Condrey, Oceanography and Coastal Sciences; Marsha Cuddeback and Frank Bosworth, Architecture/Design; Cheryl Hedlund, Veterinary Medicine; Laura G. Hensley, Educational Leadership, Research and Counseling; Andrea Houston, ISDS; Stephanie Johnson, Veterinary Medicine; Jennifer Jones, Theater/Women’s and Gender Studies; Stephanie H. Kurtz, Mathematics; Laura Lawson, Landscape Architecture; Yiping Lou, Educational Leadership, Research and Counseling; David J. Mukai, Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Carol O’Neil, Human Ecology.
Awarding of the grants was made possible through the efforts of LSU’s Office of Academic Affairs, Centers for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Program of Learning Through Service (PLUS) and School of Social Work Office of Social Service Research and Development (OSSRD).
For more information, contact Jan Shoemaker at 578-4074 or Bobbie Shaffett at 578-9264.
The crime rate at LSU dropped 11.74 percent during the 2000 calendar year, according to the LSU Police Department.
LSUPD attributed the reduction in crime to their ongoing efforts to provide the campus with a pro-active response to the threats presented by criminal activity as well as to the community’s aggressive response in reporting such activity.
Throughout 2000, a total of 714 Category I crimes – including shoplifting, bicycle theft, theft from motor vehicles, robbery, assault, burglary, auto theft and hate crimes – were reported to LSUPD. In 1999, 95 more cases in this category were reported, while in 1998, 160 more cases reported.
Property crime continued to be the largest of the Category I crimes reported. Of the 714 crimes in the year 2000, 558 of the incidents involved property theft or burglary.
Increases were reported in robbery, assault and hate crimes. Twelve robberies were reported in 2000, up from five in 1999. Assaults increased by five – 49 were reported in 2000, while 42 were reported in 1999 – and one hate crime occurred in 2000 when no such activity was reported in 1999.
Decreases were reported in rape (down from 1 in 1999), burglary (76 in 2000, down from 139 in 1999) and automobile theft (18 in 2000, down from 20 in 1999).
LSUPD noted that the joint approach to crime prevention has proven beneficial and urges the University community to take an active approach when dealing with crime by notifying the proper authorities.
To report a crime or suspicious activity on campus, call LSUPD at 578-3231. To learn more about the department, visit the Web site at www.lsu.edu/police.
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| Former US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, above, met with several University students at the African American Cultural Center at the reception immediately following her lecture, Feb. 15. Elders urged students to reverse social trends, such as drug abuse and teen pregnancy, by making well-educated choices and encouraging others to do the same. |
"They’ve got shoes that light up when they walk and a brain that goes dead when they talk,” said former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, referring to the large number of today’s youth who graduate from high school each year, unable to read their diplomas.
“We’ve got to fix this,” Elders told LSU students, faculty and staff gathered in the LSU Union Royal Cotillion Ballroom Feb. 15 at a lecture held in conjunction with Black History Month.
Elders talked primarily about educating the youth in America as being one way to help solve some of the problems that face America as it begins a new century.
Of these problems, Elders listed various issues related to health care, such as teenage pregnancy and drug abuse, as areas that need much work and creative leadership from a new generation.
When Elders addressed the problem of teenage pregnancy and her stance on abortion and condom distribution, she reminded those in attendance that at one time she had been known as the “condom queen” for advocating that condoms be made more easily available to teenagers.
Of 60 million cases of STDs in America this past year, 4 million were in teenagers, she said. Elders encouraged especially her fellow African-Americans present to recognize what condom usage could mean for the health of their own population, citing that 59 percent of HIV-positive women are minority women, and 59 percent of babies born with HIV are black.
In response to a peaceful demonstration by University pro-life students who carried signs with anti-abortion messages in front of Elders as she first took the stage, Elders later said, “I’m not about abortions; I’ve never been...I’m about preventing unplanned, unwanted pregnancies...If you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life.”
The former Surgeon General told students that other social and behavioral problems, such as binge drinking, smoking and violence, also impact the health of the country’s communities.
And a total solution, according to Elders, won’t be found in a church or religious organization as some have suggested.
She said only 52 percent of America’s youth report being involved in some type of organized religious group.
It’s time to stop moralizing from the pulpit and preaching to the choir, Elders admonished.
Elders told students that after graduating from college they will have to face many “-isms” such as racism, sexism and elitism, all of which, she said, are caused by fear and ignorance.
“Ignorance is cured with a good education,” she said. “And you are [at LSU] to get that education...to develop the most important tool you have...That’s up here,” Elders said, pointing to her head.
Young people are America’s most “viable resource,” she said. And yet, in the past 10 years, the United States has built more prisons than schools and pays prison guards more than teachers, she said.
It’s time for the country to rethink its priorities, she said, encouraging students to take matters into their own hands, to lead where the previous generation has not and to strive to make significant progress toward healing America’s social ills.
She told students she hoped their college education would give them “a vision in their eyes, a voice in their ears, a scroll in their hands and a song in their hearts,” empowering them to use resources available to them to make informed decisions while always remembering to keep “an eye on the prize.”
Nominated as Surgeon General of the US Public Health Services by President Clinton in July of 1993, Elders resigned from the post in December 1994 to continue her career at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She was listed in 100 Outstanding Women in Arkansas, Personalities of the South and Distinguished Women of America.
Her visit was cosponsored by the Student Health Center, the Women’s Center, the Department of Residential Life and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
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| Lights, Camera, Action—Actor Joseph C. Phillips, above, spent time with several University students during his visit to LSU, Feb. 20. In addition to delivering a lecture, Phillips, who has appeared on “The Cosby Show,” “General Hospital” and most recently on “City of Angels,” led two acting workshops for students. These events were part of the University’s Black History Month celebration. |
