Friday, September 23, 2016 | Volume 212 | Number 24 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
Birds help inspire poetry project Crowdsourced activity arrives By Lindsey.Davis @iowastatedaily.com
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By Erin.Stuckey and Jenna.Hrdlicka @iowastatedaily.com
Some Iowa state students have chosen to take their adventures around the world this semester through various study abroad programs. This fall, there are 226 students participating in study abroad programs. Many students take the opportunity to travel and study every year — last year, over the course of both semesters, about 1,500 students went abroad. Where are these students studying? All over the world. “The opportunities are limitless,” said Trevor Nelson, study abroad center program manager. “ISU offers program on every continent, including Antarctica.” This semester, students are participating in 61 programs at 50 different locations in 22 countries. These countries include: Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Australia, New Zealand, Bhutan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ecuador, Peru and Panama. The hundreds of study abroad programs offered
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Aspiring writers, seasoned poets, bird lovers and curious people alike are invited to take part in an online crowdsourced poetry project titled “Iowa Bird of Mouth.” Jennifer Knox, lecturer in the Iowa State English department, who was inspired by “La Familia,” a crowdsourced poem done by Juan Felipe Herrera, is heading the project. Knox received the 2017 Iowa Arts Councipoetryl Fellowship and will use the support provided by the organization to embark upon her project, which honors Iowa birds. The project will run from September 2016 to August 2017. A different bird will be the inspiration for crowdsourced poetry each month, and anyone can submit to the poems. The Iowa Bird of Mouth’s website, where contributors can go to submit their lines for the poem, has high filters for profanity because Knox wants students and classrooms to use the project. Poetry for September’s bird, the goldfinch, is open for submission until Sept. 30, and will be followed up by the pheasant in October. Tyler Harms, who leads the Iowa Young Birders, came up with and determined the order for each of the 12 birds. Knox said she wants to get people to write who have always wanted to create a poem, but have been frightened to. “This is a great place to share your words and be a part of the community,” Knox said. The project also has a theme song titled “The Elephant and the Tiger (Birds of a Feather).” Local Ames artists Quervo and Strong Like Bear collaborated to create the theme song. Knox said she isn’t sure yet what she’ll do when the project is over, but some ideas include turning IBOM into a book, or collaborating with Iowa visual artists. “I could see this continuing to be a cool, collaborative project that encourages environmental consciousness,” Knox said.
Award funds research Students reflect on Arab Spring offers insight about water quality Trio into uprisings By Paige.Anson @iowastatedaily.com A better economical understanding of the value of water is in progress at Iowa State University after an $800,000 award was given to researchers at The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) “The reason that the EPA is interested in this kind of analysis is that they are tasked by the government to do a Cost Benefit Analysis to come up with rules and regulations,” said Cathy Kling, director of the Center of Agricultural and Rural Development (CARDS), and the leading investigator on the project. “If we were going to improve the water quality from what it is now, it’s going to cost something,” Kling said. “If you impose some costs on people, you have to have a good idea on how those costs will benefit the people.” The findings of the project will better define what people value their water quality at, giving federal
government and state agencies a basis on which they can make decisions on how and where to spend public dollars concerning water-related issues. The project’s first step is to begin with small focus groups that will be presented with pictures of rivers and streams with differing levels of water quality. The researchers at CARD will discuss with the focus groups what ecological indicators are important to them, and will then determine what varying levels of water quality look like to them. “Do they care what the water looks like? What community of animals live there?” Kling said. “When they see pictures of what looks like a healthy characteristic to an ecologist, we want to know how they would perceive that characteristic of that water system.” Surveys will also be developed where different levels of water quality will be depicted to groups, and their responses to these pictures will provide more basis in defining how they value water. Following the focus groups and
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By Jake.Dalbey @iowastatedaily.com Gunfire ringing from the streets, people young and old holding signs in anger, and the actions of a few escalating the responses of others. For three Iowa State students, living through the overthrow of a government was an up close and personal endeavor experienced during the Arab Spring uprisings and riots in the Middle East during the fall and winter of 2011. Speaking in the Memorial Union on Thursday night, the three students provided context toward the Arab revolution in a lecture titled “In the Heart of the Arab Spring.” Taking place between 2010 and 2012, the Arab Spring was the formation of several Middle Eastern political revolutions. Karim Abdelhamid, senior in biosystems engineering, was a teenager in Egypt during the beginning of the Arab Spring and recalled his reactions to the injustice seen within his city. “Starting as a junior in high
Kennedy DeRaedt/Iowa State Daily
Mohamed Abufalgha responds to a question asked at the “In the Heart of the Arab Spring” lecture Thursday in the Memorial Union.
school I was immediately immersed in the Egyptian working class,” Abdelhamid said. “I was shocked that basic needs such as food and supplies were privileges not held by many in my community.” Abdelhamid spoke on the rampant corruption found within the Egyptian congress which eventually led to brutality toward those who spoke their minds in public. “There was police brutality towards activists, politicians, anyone who could speak against the government,” Abdelhamid said. ”It should be said that the man who ran against the former president
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Hosni Mubarak in 2005 was jailed for merely running against him, even though all the Egyptians knew Mubarak would win.” Eventually protesters began to encroach even closer toward Abedlhamid’s home. It was at this point that police began to use weapons against activists and even released prisoners in the hope that the populous would become afraid and remain in their homes. However, it was during this time that Abdelhamid saw his country ban together the most. “The police eventually just dis-
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