Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
around THE quad Magnetized
PHOTO: ERIC FOSTER
TALENTED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS INITIATE STEM PROGRAM
Wayne Whitaker, assistant director of diversity and retention, left, and Rosalee Rush, assistant vice president for marketing and communications, greet civil rights leader Julian Bond.
History of Race
CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER SPEAKS AT BANQUET CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER Julian Bond, former chairman of the NAACP, talked about race, its role in history and today’s political environment as the keynote speaker of the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Banquet. “Those who say race is history are wrong,” he said. “History is race.” Bond’s discussion spanned decades – from his participation in the movements for civil rights and economic justice during the 1960s to his observations on today’s political agenda and his involve-
ment in a recent protest against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline at the White House. Bond, who helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 and became the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was elected to four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and six terms in the Georgia Senate. “The greatest impediment to achieving racial equity is the narcotic belief that we already have,” he said. l
Community Service
BU AGAIN NAMED TO HONOR ROLL FOR THE FOURTH consecutive year, Bloomsburg University has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The listing recognizes BU for the role it plays “in solving community problems and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement by recognizing institutions that achieve meaningful, measureable outcomes in the communities they serve.” The national recognition, administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, began in 2006. Bloomsburg University has been named to the list five times since its inception. To be included, applicants are judged on quantity and quality of the service performed by faculty, staff and students, as well as the impact their efforts have on the community. l
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BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
TWENTY-ONE ACADEMICALLY talented high school juniors from Bloomsburg, Central Columbia and Berwick Area school districts will be admitted this fall as the first class in Bloomsburg University’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Magnet program. Students in the program will enroll together in five courses at BU and earn a total of 15 credits. They will earn 15 additional credits during their second year in the program. The program will focus on engineering, but also will give students interested in math or other sciences the tools needed to be successful in college. l
Geisinger Grant BU PART OF MARCELLUS SHALE INITIATIVE
BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY received a $29,000 grant as a partner in Geisinger Health System’s Weis Center for Research Marcellus Shale Initiative. The multidisciplinary, collaborative research program is investigating the health of the region’s population, including the potential health effects of natural gas mining in the Marcellus Shale region of central Pennsylvania and southern New York. In one of the initial collaborative projects, BU faculty Heather Feldhaus, assistant dean, College of Liberal Arts; Christopher Podeschi, associate professor of sociology; and John Hintz, associate professor, environmental, geographical and geological sciences, will conduct community focus group studies with investigators to assess local knowledge and attitudes about Marcellus Shale drilling. l