Miamian, Fall 2015

miamian The Magazine of Miami University

Fall 2015

Plight of the Honeybee Quest for a Healthier, Heartier Bee

IN THIS ISSUE:

Helping Homeless Vets Top of His Game An Eggs-and-Bacon Friendship

HOMAGE TO ANCIENT ONES A 30" x 40" oil painting on canvas with Anasazi Indian pottery displayed in front, “Chaco’s Legacy,” by Bruce Stowe ’73, features a wall of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, N.M., with pieces that would have been traded there over 800 years ago.

Staff Editor Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96

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Senior Designers Donna Barnet Belinda Rutherford

Web Developer Suzanne Clark

STORIES

18 A Giant in a World of Miniatures

Copy Editor Beth Weaver

One of the originators of Dungeons & Dragons, Bruce “Duke” Seifried ’57 is a pioneer in adventure gaming.

Issue Design Consultant Lilly Pereira University Advancement 513-529-4029 Vice President for University Advancement Tom Herbert herbertw@MiamiOH.edu

Uncle Duke Seifried’s success in gaming was no simple roll of the dice (see page 18).

ON THE COVER Nearly 165 years after “The Bee-Man of Oxford” tapped into “bee space” to create a movable frame hive, beekeepers still use his invention to enjoy “complete control of the combs.” Photo: © Ludmila Smite/Fotolia.

Lisa Pape ’88, national director of Homeless Programs for the VA, is dealing with causes that put veterans on the street.

The Father of American Beekeeping, Oxford’s own Lorenzo Langstroth, would be fascinated by Alex Zomchek’s work to save the invaluable pollinator.

IN EACH ISSUE

Office of Development 513-529-1230 Senior Associate Vice President for University Advancement Brad Bundy Hon ’13 brad.bundy@MiamiOH.edu

Send address changes to: Alumni Records Office Advancement Services Miami University 926 Chestnut Lane Oxford, Ohio 45056 alumnirecords@MiamiOH.edu 513-529-5127 Fax: 513-529-1466

22 A Place to Call Home

24 Plight of the Honeybee

Alumni Relations 513-529-5957 Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Ray Mock ’82 MS ’83 mockrf@MiamiOH.edu

MiamiOH.edu/alumni

Fall 2015

The Magazine of Miami University

Photographers Jeff Sabo Scott Kissell

2 From the Hub

Accentuate the positive.

3 Back & Forth

To and from the editor.

Toddlers find driving therapeutic (see page 12).

6 Along Slant Walk

Campus news highlights.

10 Such a Life 10%

Exploring today’s Cuba.

12 Inquiry + Innovation

Opus Web paper features FSC® certifications and is Lacey Act compliant; 100% of the electricity used to manufacture Opus Web is generated with Green-e® certified renewable energy.

16 My Story

Fostering friendship over bacon and eggs.

30 Love & Honor

As freshmen move in, alums share their own first-day memories and support of the incoming class.

32 Class Notes

Notes, news, and weddings.

Redesigned toy car gives toddlers greater mobility.

46 Farewells

14 Media Matters

Dusting off a historical gem from the archives.

New works by alumni.

48 Days of Old

Miamian is published three times a year by the University Advancement Division of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056. Copyright © 2015, Miami University. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Miamian is produced by University Communications and Marketing, 108 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, 513-529-7592; Fax: 513-529-1950; Miamian@MiamiOH.edu.

from the hub

Yes, and …

By President David Hodge

Participating in an improv workshop the day before convocation, I found myself pretending to be country music singer Hank Williams sitting next to “Elvis” along with other “celebrities in bathroom stalls.” I should have been embarrassed to tears. Yet there I was in front of a hundred other faculty and staff nervously wailing “I’m So Looooooonesome I Could Cryyyyy,” encouraged by my colleagues to go way beyond my comfort zone.

The purpose of the session was to unleash our creativity. This was the focus of our summer reading book, The 46 Rules of Genius: An innovator’s guide to creativity, which kicked off our yearlong theme of creativity and innovation.

As Miami professor Jim Friedman describes it, creativity is thought, and innoThe room came vation is action. What we discovered during the workshop is that the best way to succeed alive with people at both is to adopt a “Yes, and” mentality. shouting ideas one That’s harder than it sounds because we’re so used to responding with “Yes, but” or after another.

“No, but” that we don’t even hear ourselves.

Some brave person puts an idea on the table, and we jump in with 10 reasons why it won’t work.

Considering that fear of failure is one of the biggest impediments to creativity, wouldn’t we be better off to adopt a “Yes, and” culture and brainstorm together?

Those of us at the workshop, led by 1991 alumnus Andy Eninger and his Second City Works colleague Rachel Miller, experienced the release of our inhibitions through the power of “Yes, and.” The room came alive with people shouting ideas one after another.

We then shared what we learned as we led smallgroup discussions with first-year students following convocation. As the students in my group moved from the negative to the positive, their change in attitude and participation was akin to switching on a light.

Creativity and innovation have never been more important than they are today in our world of rapid

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change, extensive global competition, and complex challenges. Yet, ours is a world in which many feel that creativity and innovation are on the decline.

We are out to prove that they are on the incline at Miami — in our students, in our graduates, and in our university. You are encouraged to join us in our efforts.

Start with tactics from Miami professor Glenn Platt that I shared in my annual address: Try reverse brainstorming and ask how you cause a problem. Write down each time you say “we can’t,” “won’t work,” or “the way we do things.” Imagine you have a time machine and ask how this problem would be approached in 50 years.

Take a look at other activities and resources at www.

MiamiOH.edu/Miamideas.

Most importantly, as a university, we need to focus on developing personal qualities that give rise to creativity and innovation throughout the curriculum and in co-curricular life.

My list includes curiosity, You are invited to write to motivation, fearlessness, President David Hodge at knowledge, collaboration, president@MiamiOH.edu. Follow him on Twitter @PresHodge. persistence, and initiative.

There is a common misperception that creativity and innovation usually occur as a flash of insight that reveals itself. The reality is that it mostly comes down to a lot of plain old hard work. As we push through dead ends and failures, it helps to keep in mind Thomas Edison’s famous remark, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Striving for creativity and innovation in everything we do requires a high level of commitment, and above all, requires us to be doggedly persistent. It is so worth the effort. No buts about that.

back & forth miamian The Magazine of Miami

University

Spring/Summer 2015

KICKSTA RTING CREATIV ITY Missy Sherburne ’93 chalks up revolutionary charity’s success to creative teachers and their innovative ideas.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Oxford Delights in Top Ranking Artisan Cheesemakers Ready for Food Fight My Story: A Tribute to Becca

Varying views Thanks for bringing exposure to DonorsChoose.org in the article “Kickstarting Creativity” (Spring/ Summer 2015 Miamian). My wife and I regularly support teachers and students through this charity.

We fund reading and math book projects every month for local school systems and annually contribute larger gifts that buy gear for middle school softball teams in places like the Bronx and Los Angeles.

The donor and stewardship experience is very good — handwritten letters from students and fast responses from thankful teachers. We funded softball gloves for a team on a Sunday. The volunteer-based process is so efficient that the gloves shipped the next day and were in the hands of the players

by Thursday. We received this note from the teacher/coach: “You can’t even begin to imagine how much we appreciate this right now. I am at a loss of words. Thank you so much! Our girls seemed to have lost hope, but this will definitely boost our spirits. … You have really saved my team!”

These projects from DonorsChoose.org can greatly enhance our public school classrooms.

—Tim Jones ’85 Oxford, Ohio Seldom have I been as angry as I was when I read the “Kickstarting Creativity” article about Missy Sherburne ’93.

The former TFAer [Teach for America] was recruited to a “philanthropy” where her employer avoids taxes as a charitable organization. Her “charity” provides a tax write-off for funders of “navy blazers and bow ties,” which make children feel “proud.” I deduce she’s part of the group that thinks the effects of poverty can be ameliorated by grit, resilience, and sartorial pride.

TFA has a very high turnover.

While the interviewer didn’t ask Sherburne how long she was in the classroom before moving into administration, Sherburne values “risk friendly organizations because that’s where people really grow.” Children in poverty in the U.S. face plenty of risks without the vagaries of corporate school spending and corruption, teachers with six-weeks’ experience, or the starvation of funds to their communities. Reportedly, TFAers have been used to replace tenured teachers. The picture is bleak for MU’s school of education. Daytonian Scott Ervin’s letter of resignation from teaching was published in the Washington Post and Dayton Daily News July 16, 2015, “Teaching in Ohio Has Become Impossible.”

Sherburne’s alma mater the Harvard Kennedy School, like Harvard’s School of Education, has been in the forefront of school

privatization. The attacks on public education are motivated by profit seeking. There are indicators that public universities, like Miami, are the next targets in the cross-hairs of corporations, plutocrats, and their sycophants.

I hope MU got a fat check in return for the puff piece.

—Linda Lenz Bricker ’72 Waynesville, Ohio Editor’s note: Response from Missy Sherburne ’93, chief partnerships officer for DonorsChoose.org: I’m grateful to work at DonorsChoose.org, a four-star-rated charity on Charity Navigator, and for the ways we empower teachers and students.

We exclusively serve public schools throughout the country, and 85 percent of the classroom projects funded on our site support high poverty public schools; 94 percent of our teachers said that their funded DonorsChoose.org projects increased their effectiveness as teachers, and 88 percent said their participation increased their commitment to the teaching profession.

I welcome the opportunity to take Ms. Bricker to visit a DonorsChoose.org teacher in a nearby public school so she can see the impact we have on students.

Send letters to: Donna Boen Miamian editor 108 Glos Center Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056-2480 Miamian@MiamiOH.edu; or fax to 513-529-1950.

Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number.

Letters are edited for space and clarity.

Oxford needs upscale homes In response to “A Good Place to Call Home” (Spring/Summer 2015 Miamian), my wife and I spend a great deal of time in Oxford as I have a sister, brother-in-law, two nieces and nephews, and their families who live in Oxford. We would move there in a heart beat, but everything there is aged, and we are used to living a little more upscale.

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Mr. Christenson truly embodied Miami’s educational values, teaching standards, and ethics.

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We spend quite a bit of time in other college towns, and many of them enjoy and support having non-students and faculty living close by. Oxford is missing the boat.

Schools and towns we’ve visited with great living accommodations for non-students are William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; Northwestern, Evanston, Ill.; West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.; and Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Fla. A developer around Oxford should look at Williamsburg to see something unbelievable. I believe a townhouse complex like the many in Williamsburg would go over big.

—Jack Orcutt ’58 Naples, Fla. Unselfish service I was so pleased to see that the Bishop Medal is still being awarded to deserving alumni. The story of Mark Curnutte ’84, his triumphs over adversity, his excellence as a journalist, and his exciting plans for the future continue to give credence to the award (“Work Still to be Done,” Spring/Summer 2015 Miamian). Thanks to Vince Frieden for writing this article.

Mark’s life mirrors that of Dr. Samuel Crawford Clark, who received the first Bishop Medal in 1936. Dr. Clark graduated from Miami, then U.C. Medical School, and returned to Adams County, setting up a medical practice in the little town of Cherry Fork, where he treated all who came to him whether they could pay or not.

He was a staunch believer of preventive medicine and vaccines and a major force in getting the hospital at West Union built so patients would no longer have to take the

train to Cincinnati for procedures.

His daughter, Mary Christine Clark Britton, was a student at Miami, Class of 1939, and was able to see her father honored. I am his granddaughter, and I have the medal displayed in my home.

This past school year, Dr. Clark’s great-granddaughter, Charlotte Jane Fabo, needed to make a presentation to her second-grade class on a family artifact. The Bishop Medal seemed the perfect choice.

Hopefully, the story of my grandfather and his sacrifices for his community will teach Charlotte and her peers about Giving Back.

Maybe sacrifice is the wrong word.

Dr. Clark could have made a lot of money somewhere else, but he was the happiest, most confident, and content man I have ever known.

He loved his patients, he loved the two small farms he was able to buy, at the same time giving tenant farmers a quality life they would not otherwise have had, and he loved his family. I have always been so very proud of this man. He was so proud of Miami University.

—Jane Britton ’66 Moraga, Calif.

Professor’s lasting impact I was saddened by the recent death of Reo Christenson, [professor of political science at Miami from 1956–1996]. Mr. Christenson truly embodied Miami’s educational values, teaching standards, and ethics.

My senior year, I elected to take his current events course. I did poorly on the mid-term — I think I got a D. Determined to better my grade, I prepared for the final. After the final, I felt confident that I answered the questions well.

A few days later, Mr. Christenson called me. He said it was one of the best finals he’d ever graded and was going to give me a B for the course.

His small act has stayed with me all of these years. It illustrates that Miami University professors go the extra mile for their students.

I know I was not the only student that Mr. Christenson reached out to and had a positive and lasting impact on their lives. We were lucky to have him as a professor.

—Terri Mueller Williams ’77 Maineville, Ohio Touching tribute I just read the My Story article “Remembering Becca” in the Spring/Summer 2015 Miamian.

Thank you for publishing it.

I am proud of Miami for doing what is right. Thank you for celebrating her life and not backing away from a horrible tragedy.

—Maureen Troester Hurst ’90 Chesterton, Ind. Oldest building?

Regarding Professor McGuffey’s octagonal desk and his home (“Eight Sides to McGuffey’s Stories,” Spring/Summer 2015 Miamian), you mentioned McGuffey Museum is the second-oldest building on campus. What is the oldest?

—Lou Pumphrey ’64 Shaker Heights, Ohio Editor’s note: Elliott Hall (1828–1829). Originally known as Washington and Clinton Hall, it was commonly called Old North.

After a 1937 remodel, it was named after Charles Elliott, professor of Greek at Miami 1849–1863, who lived in the hall as a mentor to “calm down the unruly men.”

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Frosty reprimand This week in the mail I received my Midwest Living. To my surprise, it featured Miami. The article begins “Long ago, the poet Robert Frost visited western Ohio and fell under the thrall of Miami University, deeming it ‘the most beautiful campus that ever there was.’ ” I was in the audience when he spoke. Halfway through his discourse, another girl in the audience dropped a knitting needle.

It echoed throughout. Mr. Frost stopped talking and reprimanded her. If there had been a basement in the building, I am sure she would have gladly dropped into it.

—Sally Thoms Miller ’55 Hudsonville, Mich.

Facebook comments Regarding “A Good Place to Call Home” about Oxford ranking No. 1 as Best College Town in U.S.: OxVegas, a Happening Town.

—Chris Shrader ’82, Carmel, Ind. For “Such a life” photo/article about perennial flowerbeds being planted on campus to sustain native butterflies: I love that Dan [Garber] and Nancy [Solomon] and the students involved have made Miami even MORE beautiful, while supporting pollinators with native plant choices. In a world where many species are in peril, beauty cannot be the only objective in landscaping — and these gorgeous areas of campus prove that ecologically sound practices can be very beautiful too! —Kathy Branch Spicer ’87, North Canton, Ohio

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

To bee or not to bee No question about it. Our life is far sweeter because of the honeybee, and I’m not just talking about their lovely product that we drizzle on flaky biscuits.

First, I must confess that I’d not given honeybees much thought, short of allowing them the right of way when we’re both admiring the same flower. Thanks to master beekeeper and Oxford apiculturist Alex Zomchek, I now have a much deeper appreciation of their importance in our lives. As he explained it to me, one-third of all our food is the result of bees and pollination, primarily our fruits and vegetables. I thought about that this morning as I washed grapes and carrots and put them in my lunch bag, wondering what I’d replace them with if the direst predictions come true.

You see, our bees are dying. Without bees, our stores’ produce sections would be decimated. Only the rich could afford what little might be available.

The costs and consequences are evident already. The almond crop is one example that Alex shares with students in his botany and zoology labs at Miami’s Ecology Research Center. It’s the first crop in the U.S. every spring that requires bees for pollination—1.6 million beehives, according to the Almond Board of California.

“This is the second year in a row in the history of agribusiness in the United States, the second year in a row, that when the almond growers called for bees, the industry could not supply the number they needed,” Alex told me. He said almond growers, who paid $38 per hive 10 years ago, were willing to pay $300 this spring. Waving money around made no difference. Too many bees died last winter.

I wonder what Lorenzo Langstroth would think of all this? Known as the “Bee-Man of Oxford,” he also holds a more significant title: “The Father of American Beekeeping.” With his 1850s invention of the movable frame beehive, for the first time humans could work with bees, turning a backyard hobby into a $15 billion crop pollination industry.

If you’ve ever walked near Miami’s Bachelor Hall or the gates of Western Campus, you’ve likely passed by the modest, two-story Langstroth Cottage. This is where friends and neighbors once glanced across Osage hedges to a courtly figure in a bee-hat. The Congregational minister, husband, and father of three, known for his kindness and gentleness, lived here for nearly 30 years, spending as much time as possible in “open air” to combat debilitating depression.

Our cover story, “Plight of the Honeybee,” is dedicated to this man who sought solace in his bees. —Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96

“The honeybee is capable of being tamed or domesticated to a most surprising degree.”

—L.L. Langstroth, 1853

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Back in the Swing of Things New in Kreger Hall is this Foucault Pendulum (above), created by artist David Griggs for the physics department.

The top layer is an astronomical clock, the middle is a map of Oxford from the 1800s, and the bottom represents the Northern Hemisphere’s constellations. Physic’s first pendulum had to stay in Culler when the department moved as it was too big to budge.

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As with every semester, the pace is picking up as

we move ever closer to final exams. Some things never change. And other things do.

Miami has a new academic department — global and intercultural studies; a new neuroscience co-major; and new degrees in information technology, commerce, and liberal studies on the regional campuses.

Shideler Hall’s major makeover will finish in time for spring semester, paving the way for construction to start on the Armstrong Student Center’s $23.6 million east wing. Scheduled for completion in fall 2017, it will integrate a renovated Culler by extending the center’s existing atrium.

Bishop Woods reopened this fall, too, and features a grassy area with benches and safety improvements including walkway lighting.

Also back online this semester is a renovated East Quad. With the former Erickson Dining Hall now living space in Dennison, Garden Commons is the quad’s dining hall. An addition to Symmes’ northwest side, it is buffet-style dining.

Legacy Project, located along the third-base line of McKie Field at Hayden Park, opened this fall as well, creating a new home for baseball.

Also new, Chestnut Fields is providing additional recreational fields and parking at the former Talawanda High School site on Chestnut Street.

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Kinesiology and health professor Rose Marie Ward honored as 2015 Effective Educator, nominated by Class of 2011

2015 Effective Educator Rose Marie Ward is recognized at Homecoming football game by (l-r) Ray Mock ’82 MS ’83, assistant vice president for alumni relations; Ted Downing ’68 of the Miami University Alumni Association board; and President David Hodge.

Rose Marie Ward’s enthusiasm for

teaching, zeal for research, and compassion for students were recognized earlier this fall when she was named the Miami University Alumni Association’s 2015 Effective Educator.

An associate professor in kinesiology and health who came to Miami in 2002, she was nominated by the Class of 2011.

Nominees acknowledged her enduring influence on their lives. One, now a physical therapist, credited her for teaching empathy toward patients.

In response, Ward said, “I have been blessed to work with some amazing Miami students over the years. Each one has touched my research, my teaching, my life, and changed it for the better.

“A good teacher sees each student, each class, each course as an opportunity and a challenge.”

Ward is director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, a faculty affiliate to psychology and statistics, and an executive board member of the Doris Bergen Center for Human Development, Learning, and Technology.

She also is involved in undergraduate research, collaborating through the First Year Research Experience, University Summer Scholars, capstone projects, and independent studies. Her research is in health behavior in college students, specifically the relationship between alcohol consumption and sexual assault.

“I screwed up 26 years ago, and I paid the price.

I’m not going to sit here in Oxford, Ohio, and whine, because I messed up.”

—Hit king Pete Rose discussing his ban from the Baseball Hall of Fame; first speaker in Miami’s 2015-2016 Lecture Series

I’M GLAD YOU ASKED At a fair showcasing Miami’s 400+ clubs, we asked upperclass students:

What’s your advice to members of Class of 2019?

Get involved. Sign up for everything. Keep your door open in your residence hall.

Met everyone on my floor that way.

Logan Babcock’16, Mansfield, Ohio, mathematics and statistics major

Choose each class carefully.

When people give you advice; trust yourself.

Brittani Wang ’16, China, finance major

Photo by Andrew Katko ’18

Look for Opportunities, Challenges

If college is one big juggling act, this student is up to the challenge. He’s demonstrating his skills at the Mega Fair to attract new club members.

Find what you love and invest in it.

Lesley Spaeth ’16, Mason, Ohio, mathematics education major

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NOTEWORTHY

To boost student success in STEM fields, three faculty are using a $360,000 National Science Foundation grant to study students taking a pre-engineering course.

They intend to create a tool that instructors can use to improve students’ performance, said Amy Summerville (above), associate professor of psychology and principal investigator. Co-investigators are Jennifer Blue, associate professor of physics, and Brian Kirkmeyer, the Karen Buchwald Wright Assistant Dean for Student Success.

Miami’s Best Buddies program won the Overall Most Outstanding College Chapter of the Year Award at the Best Buddies International Leadership Conference this summer. A young chapter, Miami was up against more than 430 college programs from around the world, many with far more resources. Schools were evaluated on the amount of awareness raised in the community by the chapter and the quality of friendships established through the program. Best Buddies pairs college students with people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Our dining services came in 18th in The Daily Meal’s annual 75 Best Colleges for Food in America for 2015. The site, which ranks colleges that “go above and beyond when it comes to dining services,” specifically mentioned Miami’s Cultivating Community and Farm-to-Fork themed dinners and social media site updates.

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#1

RISING RANKS

among Ohio public universities for best salary potential after graduation, according to PayScale.com

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among top 105 Smartest Public Colleges in America, based on students’ SAT scores

Cruising Around Campus As Neil Danielson commutes by bicycle to campus, he sips coffee from a cup he keeps in a holder on his handlebars.

The professor of chemistry and biochemistry pedals 2.5 miles each way on his vintage English Raleigh that’s also equipped with rear baskets to secure his laptop and paperwork.

“I never have to worry about parking.”

Miami senior Fred McRae zips around on a futuristic-looking, selfbalancing electric scooter.

The two-wheeled device started popping up this semester.

“The best thing about riding it around campus is how fast I get to class,” said McRae, a sport leadership and management major and a wide receiver.

Students, faculty, and staff use all sorts of creative ways to get from point A to point B

— skateboards, traditional Razor scooters, inline skates, even an occasional unicycle. And don’t forget the walkers.

Last year, a team of four engineering students designed and built hovercrafts that could carry up to 250 pounds.

Tim Cameron, chair of mechanical and manufacturing engineering, doesn’t believe students will ride hover boards or hovercraft to class anytime soon.

“It’s technically possible now, but I don’t think it will be practical for decades,” he said. “To do it magnetically would be safer but would probably require an inground track. To do it mechanically requires a momentum exchange with air, but the power requirements are high, and there are problems with noise and safety.”

For football wide receiver Fred McRae, an electric scooter is more convenient than walking, especially with sore muscles.

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Pioneer Days: Cassondra Willoughby ’15, an intern for the Oxford Museum Association the past two years, demonstrates life in the 1800s in the DeWitt Log Homestead, the oldest remaining structure in Oxford Township. Built in 1805 by Zachariah DeWitt, it is believed Miami trustees visited the farm in 1810 looking for a place to build and Zachariah suggested the crest of the hill to the west of his home, where Miami stands today. The cabin was the starting point for the 2015 Hike-A-Thon, which introduced folks of all ages to Miami’s natural areas and 17 miles of hiking trails.

Committed to Affordability, Access Miami University is part of the new

Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success. This league of more than 80 public and private colleges and universities offers free online tools to streamline planning for and applying to college.

The online portfolio will be open in January. Students applying to Miami for fall 2017 and forward will have the option to apply using either the Coalition Application or the Common Application.

“As Miami welcomes more academically gifted students from diverse

geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, we want to make certain we have the infrastructure necessary to reach those students and provide them with the tools needed to successfully navigate an increasingly complex application process,” said Susan Schaurer, assistant vice president for enrollment management and director of admission.

Among coalition members are Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. Coalition schools graduate at least 70 percent of their students within six years.

GLOBAL RHYTHMS’ 20TH Miami’s Global Rhythms World Music ensemble celebrated its 20th anniversary Oct. 17 in Hall Auditorium with a concert of 300+ musicians. Guest of honor and Academy Award winner A.R. Rahman held a pre-concert workshop for performers. Artistic director Srinivas Krishnan MEn ’88, who received the President’s Medal for leading these celebrations of non-Western music, was joined

by Ricardo Averbach, director of orchestral studies, and Jason Koontz MM ’98, director of percussion studies at Eastern Kentucky.

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such a life

CURIOUS, CONTRASTING CUBA Cuba feels “trapped in time” to senior Emily Tate, who traveled to the island as part of Miami’s “Cuba in Transition” study abroad program.

“It’s just so different from anything I’ve seen or studied that I almost feel like I’ve been dropped into a lost world,” wrote the international studies and journalism double major during the 2015 winter term experience.

Other courses that will allow students to see Cuba firsthand are also in the works, including “FSB Cuba” through the Farmer School of Business.

Journalism faculty Joe Sampson ’94 and Patti Newberry explored the Caribbean country this summer to organize a workshop, “Stories from Cuba,” for next June.

Photo: “Sunset in Havana near the Malecón — seawall” by Joe Sampson ’94

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inquiry + innovation

Go, Baby, Go! Engineering students help toddlers get moving

By Ritter Elizabeth Hoy ’02

With just some PVC pipe, foam pool noodles, and basic electronics, Miami University engineering students have designed a way for children with mobility disabilities to start moving on their own and have fun doing it.

Working with the GoBabyGo! program, administered through the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the engineering students have modified battery-powered, kid-sized cars.

“Being able to move and explore is crucial for a young child’s speech development, cognition, and growth,” said Wendy Planicka, the board’s community relations coordinator. “The cars empower kids to be a part of the action at home, in day care, and on the playground.”

These cars, for toddlers age 1 to 3, are more portable, more fun, and far less expensive than power wheelchairs, which are usually for older children anyway. The board buys cars you’d typically find in a toy store and then modifies them.

The problem was that the board’s inventory was modified with only push-button starts.

“We were using the blueprints we got from the national GoBabyGo! program, but not all children have the same abilities,” Planicka said. “Having one start button wasn’t helping the kids who aren’t able to move their arms but can use their heads.”

That’s when five Miami engineering students volunteered to build a better car.

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Anna Almquist, Isaiah Fleetwood ’15, Kalene Kelly ’15, Colin Petrello ’15, and Lindsay Silver spent spring semester 2015 designing a prototype motorized toy vehicle for the board to use when assessing a child’s mobility challenges. In addition to the push-button start, the improved test car now also features starters that children can push with their heads or stand on.

“We gave the therapists, parents, and children safer and more reliable options,” Silver said. “We designed a test vehicle to help them tailor a car to any child’s specific needs.”

Nail-biter of a race!

Not surprisingly, perfecting their design required a lot more than one trip to the hardware store for supplies.

inquiry + innovation

Modifications to this toy car help children with mobility disabilities enjoy their independence, often for the first time. Left to right are Lindsay Silver, Isaiah Fleetwood ’15 , Kalene Kelly ’15, Colin Petrello ’15 , and Anna Almquist.

Start your engines!

Go Baby Go! is a national program founded at the University of Delaware in 2006 by Cole Galloway, professor and associate chair in the department of physical therapy.

Since then, thousands of parents, clinicians, students, and community members from around the world have helped to modify toy ride-on cars for kids with disabilities, according to the University of Delaware’s website.

Each car costs approximately $300, depending on its modifications, and benefits kids with a range of diagnoses, including Down syndrome, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy.

In southwest Ohio, the cars are offered through the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities at no cost thanks to money from the Haunnah Meyer Memorial Fund. Almost 20 local families have benefited.

It didn’t help that they got off to a slow start when the car they wanted to work with, their base model, you might say, was discontinued before they could order it.

That meant going back to the drawing board with a new model. And that made meeting the deadline much more challenging as they had to design the modifications as well as build the car. Talk about a race against the clock to the finish line.

It was a nail-biter, but they made it, displaying their prototype at the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) Senior Design Expo, an annual event that showcases CEC students’ senior capstone projects.

The capstones start at the beginning of fall semester with the engineering majors forming teams and selecting projects. They must complete their clientfocused work before May commencement.

Victory lap!

All the Miami students who worked on the car said their decision to take on this project was simple. They wanted to help.

Kelly, who graduated in May and is now an operations supervisor with Exel in Columbus, loved collaborating with the young children. “I made a difference with this project.”

Almquist plans on incorporating service into her future. “If my engineering skills are needed I will be fully amenable to using them to help others.”

Fleetwood, who said he needs to feel that he is impacting someone on an emotional level to do his best, thought he didn’t want to work in a factory, but instead wanted to contribute to the field through human service projects.

“After working with GoBabyGo!, I know I can do both,” he said.

“GoBabyGo! has a direct impact on therapists and children,” Silver said. “There is no better feeling than creating something completely new that will help change someone’s life.”

“I hope our prototype car will help physical therapists build better, more personalized cars for each child’s specific needs.”

—Kalene Kelly ’15

Ritter Elizabeth Hoy ’02 is the media relations coordinator in Miami’s university news and communications office.

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media matters

Cosmopolitan melting pot MUDEC history professor writes of Luxembourg for his U.S. students

By Tali Hunt ’17, a junior majoring in journalism and comparative media studies

How did Luxembourg evolve from a small stretch of land in the heart of Europe to one of the world’s most prosperous countries?

Was the Grand Duchy’s success due to historical accidents, key personalities, its European connections, or something else? Longtime MUDEC history professor Emile Haag addresses these questions in his new book.

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The Rise of Luxembourg from Independence to Success, a book published in English, claimed the No. 1 slot on the best-seller’s list in Luxembourg in August.

That is not an “everyday achievement” in the tiny European country bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany, where the French language is “all-pervasive,” explained its author, Emile Haag, a history professor at Miami University’s Dolibois European Center (MUDEC) in Luxembourg since 1969.

Listening to news of the Korean War on the radio with his grandfather sparked his love for history. He went on to study history, French, and Latin in Aix-enProvence and Paris.

He put off his first year as a professor at MUDEC to learn more English, which he had not spoken in the five years since he graduated from high school. He studied from Agatha Christie paperbacks and English language histories of Europe.

When his American students at MUDEC became aware of his first book on the history of Luxembourg, which he published in French in 2011, they asked him to write a book in English so they could learn more about the country where they were studying.

Haag took his students’ idea to his publisher, but he was told the market for a history book in English was so small that he would need a sponsor. Members of the Luxembourg business community eventually offered their support, believing the book could help with international relations.

Published by Editions Saint-Paul in June 2015, the book was released just as Luxembourg was taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The timing is appropriate, Haag believes, because English has become the international language, the language of the European community, the business community, and the Internet.

media matters

The Hummingbird and the Hawk Charles Pettis ’61 BookLogix Smiling Fawn asks her grandfather, Brave Wolf, to tell once more her favorite story, “The Hummingbird and the Hawk.” A tribal elder, Brave Wolf shares the stories of their people to teach Smiling Fawn about the history of her family and her tribe. The legends — filled with mystery, wonder, and adventure — help Smiling Fawn understand the beliefs that her people guard and dearly treasure.

Baby Boomer Reflections: Eighteen Special Years Between 1946 and 1964 Fred Arnow ’68 CreateSpace Inspired by recollections and nostalgic conversations at his 50th high school reunion, “typical” Baby Boomer Fred Arnow sets out to describe the events and environment in which he grew up. The result is a sometimes serious, often humorous examination of the world that shaped a generation.

Arnow summons up memories of growing up in the 1950s and coming of age in the 1960s, comparing them with the often turbulent world that Boomers occupy today.

Arnow has created a storehouse of memories Boomers can share with their children and grandchildren, offering a chance to pass on the wisdom of a lifetime.

The Whistleblower: Rooting for the Ref in the High-Stakes World of College Basketball Bob Katz ’69 ForeEdge Ed Hightower, raised in poverty in the segregated rural South, became superintendent of schools in Edwardsville, Ill. But it is his side career as an elite NCAA referee (four NCAA championship games, 12 Final Fours) that has earned him renown — which in the eyes of angry coaches and hostile fans is a far cry from affection.

Alone among thousands in the stadium and millions watching at home, the ref seeks to be fair and neutral. In The Whistleblower, the referee’s role is revealed.

The Second Decision: the QUALIFIED entrepreneur Randy Nelson ’83 Advantage In The Second Decision, discover whether you are a leader who will put the company on your shoulders, a role-player who takes another position in the company, or a creator who moves on to the next big idea.

Determine your role and make the hard leadership decisions to help your company keep growing, using this book as a step-by-step guide to be — or to train — the qualified leader your company needs.

Windows into Heaven at St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church Kay Zekany ’79 MAcc ’87 Divine Press This book provides a glimpse of Heaven through the Byzantine icons adorning a church in Marblehead, Ohio. These 30 icons, and their stories, teach Christ’s lessons in color, line, and form.

Byzantine iconography was developed during early Christianity to ensure all could come to know the richness of Christianity. This book explains the visual cues unique to iconography that enable readers to perceive the meanings of each. With this book, the author pays tribute to her

Crave Eat Heal: Plant-based Whole Food Recipes to Satisfy Every Appetite Annie Oliverio ’88 Front Table Books Whether you want salty, sweet, spicy, comforting, crunchy, or chocolaty, indulge all your cravings and give your body the nutrition it needs. With these tantalizing, plantbased, vegan recipes, such as Creamy Thai Carrot Coconut Soup and Chocolate-coated Key Lime Coconut Creme Pie, popular blogger and food photographer Annie Oliverio teaches you how to train your body to want healthy options, while feeding your appetite, and satisfying your cravings — all at the same time.

father, a member of the church and builder of its structures.

POETRY Once You Had Hands

Tasha Golden MA ’12 Humanist Press

Tasha Golden, frontwoman and songwriter of critically acclaimed, Cincinnatibased band Ellery, is releasing her debut book of poetry. This collection delves deep into a myriad of issues, including domestic violence, gender inequality, disappointment with religion, and depression.

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my story

Hyunshin Park

Editor’s note: Two Miami faculty from vastly different backgrounds are more alike than they first realize. They enjoy “nice people, friendly dogs, and the communion of meals together.”

The following are two excerpts from Howard Blanning and Jinbae Park’s book/play One Thousand Breakfasts. The first part comes from Howard’s foreword. The second is from the book itself, which the two wrote as a playscript.

One Thousand Breakfasts MY STORY is a place for you to share reminiscences and observations about everyday happenings.

Submit your essay for consideration to: Donna Boen, Miamian editor, “My Story,” 108 Glos Center, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 or Miamian@ MiamiOH.edu. Please limit yourself to 900 words and include your name, class year, address, and home phone number.

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By Howard Blanning

We first met by assignment. Jinbae was a new faculty member at Miami University in architecture and interior design, and I was a mid-career member of Miami’s theatre program. We were paired in a new mentormentee program the School of Fine Arts had initiated. The school’s assistant dean, Rosalyn Benson, felt that new faculty might find somebody outside of their discipline more useful in helping them adjust to the more general aspects of university culture and customs and nutsand-bolts administrative things.

my story

It was a smart idea; and, for Jinbae and me, it was a very fortunate circumstance since we almost immediately found our mentor-mentee relationship becoming a friend-to-friend one.

To be honest, I don’t think I was particularly good at advising Jinbae about departmental, divisional, or university matters; he turned out to be much, much better at those things than I was.

Where we really found our friendship was in basketball, country drives, and many, many meals together — breakfasts being by far the most frequent.

We played noontime basketball with a group of friends, some who worked at the university and some who lived nearby. For an hour and a half, two or three times a week, we’d exhaust ourselves and feel great afterward. Those games lasted for seven years and were so important to us we’d make sure our class schedules allowed for basketball time. Wonderful games and great guys (and Helaine) on the court.

However, it was the drives that really started us off. It turned out that we both loved to take drives in the country and visit small towns; Jinbae because he thought they were beautiful and fascinating, and me because they reminded me of where I grew up. And we both had a, shall we say, pleasant interest in why things were, how things worked, and what things used to be.

So a good day for us would be having lunch in a café that used to be a parlor in what used to be a hotel near where the railroad used to stop. And we were always on the lookout for covered bridges.

The meals started naturally. We almost always ate on our drives because it was fun, but we also got in the habit of breakfasting beforehand. In those days, Oxford had light-and-healthy breakfasts at the university’s fitness center and two not-verylight-but-really-good country breakfast places in town. We split our time among the three, going the light-and-healthy route when we did fitness-center mornings. (Jinbae swam and whirlpooled; I usually just whirlpooled.) But it was the country places that became most special to us and for which we both still have very fond memories.

When Hyunshin married Jinbae, she happily joined us on the road and in the restaurants. Indeed, it was with Hyunshin that we began wandering even

farther afield, in Ohio and Indiana and later along the New Jersey shoreline or the old part of Quebec City, and even farther to many places in Europe later on.

When Hyunshin and Jinbae moved to New York, I was happy for them but sad for me. Happy my friends were moving to an exciting, new stage in their life, and sad our meals and country drives would have to end.

(Excerpt from the book’s playscript) I enjoy drives in the country, any country, maybe just as much or even more than visiting famous landmarks in cities. Maybe they kid me a little because I love to visit Michelin-starred restaurants. But, while I remember food and the service if it’s really good, I just as much remember beautiful landscapes, charming cafés, and friendly cats we once played with in a medieval town in Spain.

I used to remember bad things as well, especially bad food or bad service. But my very kind Japanese mentor in hospitality …, he told me that he also used to do that when he was young. But the real level of enjoying, he said, is that when you don’t enjoy some things, then by tomorrow morning you should completely forget about it because it’s not worth it to remember.

But enjoyable things, you can remember them as long as you like. That he calls “The World of Iki.” That’s when I started a kind of learning, kind of like a meditation process. So if, like, when we have a humble lunch or breakfast, I don’t think that the food should be at the five-star level or that the service should be at the five-star level; but I really notice small things that are done — in deco, in service, in the relationship between the customers and the staff — things that are done to encourage a pleasant experience.

Like with Phillips 27 and Bob Evans in our old days, or especially like this restaurant we went to once in Giona, and we watched this four-generation family have dinner.

I just really appreciate and love to watch when the people working in the restaurant, and the people visiting the restaurant, know how to, … how to, maybe, be an ensemble. Like a string quartet.

So a good day for us would be having lunch in a café that used to be a parlor in what used to be a hotel near where the railroad used to stop.

Howard Blanning retired this spring after teaching European and world drama at Miami University since 1984. A native of Indiana, he spent part of his youth in Egypt and has traveled widely — teaching through exchange programs in the Czech Republic, China, Luxembourg, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Jinbae Park, who lives in New York City, is a professor of interior design at Fashion Institute of Technology.

Fall 2015

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A GIANT in a WORLD

of MINIATURES

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A pioneer in adventure gaming and one of the originators of Dungeons & Dragons, “Uncle Duke” Seifried ’57 still wows convention crowds

BY MARGO KISSELL PHOTOS BY ALYSE EVERSOLE CAPACCIO ’12

Bruce “Duke” Seifried ’57 is a giant in the world of historical and fantasy miniatures. Affectionately known in the adventure gaming community as Uncle Duke, the master miniature-maker has created more than 10,000 figurines to replay hundreds of battles, from the American Civil War all the way back to 1300 B.C. Egypt.

This self-described “very old soul” enjoys breathing life into history and introducing new generations to his old-school style of play at major gaming conventions. At this summer’s Gen Con, the largest tabletop-game convention in North America, he moderated three games of his creation with 2,500+ miniatures.

“With today’s video games, it has widened the audience tremendously,” said the 80-year-old showman, who was named Industry Insider Guest of Honor at Gen Con 2015. With more than 61,000 attendees and 15,000 events, the four-day convention in Indianapolis set new records in the show’s 48-year history, according to Gen Con’s website.

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To the younger digital generation, whose speedy thumbs nimbly navigate hand-held gaming controllers, Seifried is one of the gaming pioneers who began rolling dice to settle tactical issues.

Miami’s Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies (AIMS) gives a nod to Seifried (pronounced Zy-freed) because of his many accomplishments, albeit he graduated long before the university offered digital game studies.

“He has a huge name in tabletop role-playing,” said Bob De Schutter, the C. Michael Armstrong Professor in Miami’s College of Education, Health and Society and AIMS. Miami’s gaming program ranked 12th recently among U.S. public universities and colleges by Animation Career Review.

In addition to his huge name, Seifried also had a large hand in creating the 3-D elements of Dungeons & Dragons, such as Dungeon Tiles and terrain for 3-D setups. A publicist for Wizards of the Coast — a major publisher in the hobby game industry that acquired TSR in 1997 and is now part of Hasbro — confirmed Seifried, a former executive vice president of TSR, as one of the originators of D&D and his part in the 3-D aspect of it. A fantasy game set in an imaginary world based loosely on medieval myth, D&D is commonly recognized as the beginning of the modern role-playing game and its industry.

For many video games, D&D served as “the blueprint,” De Schutter said.

“It really set in motion this tabletop role-playing, and there are a whole bunch of other games that came out of it that spawned their own computer games, so the influence is absolutely huge.”

Creating extravaganzas

D&D is only one of many games Seifried has been involved with. He estimates he has built about 80 dioramas — models representing historic scenes using 3-D

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figures — on 45 different topics. Some of his elaborate interactive “extravaganzas” have sold for thousands of dollars and are owned by patrons around the world.

He calls them interactive museum displays because hobbyists can play with them in adventure games set on man-made terrain. His largest display was a 30-by-30-foot Jolly Roger featuring 24 brigantines, sloops, schooners, Spanish men-of-war, and frigates from what he calls the golden age of piracy (1680–1720).

“You walked in the water as if you were Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels,” said Seifried, who created the display inside a convention booth filled with waisthigh water.

Despite his age and health issues that require him to be on oxygen “off and on” during the day, he strives to take on one new project each year at his home in Janesville, Wis. Annette Baker, his wife of 24 years, calls him “a true Renaissance man, excelling in design, construction, painting, sculpturing, and rule writing for games of almost every period in history.”

He feels compelled to keep creating, he said. “All my life I’ve been making little tin soldiers in one way or another.

I seem to have an imperative to do it.”

He chuckles at a boyhood memory of making plaster molds and pouring metal into them before they were dry.

“They would explode. That didn’t go over very well.”

Outmaneuvering disease

Seifried, a Dayton native, majored in speech/radio-television at Miami, but his love of music took center stage. He performed with the a cappella choir and also played string bass and guitar with the Campus Owls swing band.

He paid his way through college by giving string bass and guitar lessons and performing at all the local hot spots, including Mac & Joe’s on Tuesdays and the Purity on Thursdays.

After graduation, he returned to Dayton, where he worked for a TV station and then an advertising firm, writing jingles for Frigidaire among others. Before joining TSR, he was a driving force behind three creative manufacturers of adventure gaming products, Der Kriegspielers, Custom Cast, and Heritage USA. Music is still a big part of his life. In 1992, he started returning to Miami’s Oxford campus every June to perform with the Campus Owls at reunions. He also plays guitar with the Jack Farina Big Band, a 40-piece swing band, and in a Jazz for Jesus group at churches. He makes solo appearances as Cool Jazz, featuring his own computer-oriented arrangements.

He believes staying active is the secret. “I am 80 but I look 60, I act 50, and I think 40.”

About five years ago doctors diagnosed him with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. They gave him six to 18 months to live. “I am four years over my expiration date,” he said.

He expected his 2010 appearance at Historicon would be his last, so he ran 14 of his extravaganzas with other gamemasters assisting him.

Then he went home to die.

“Only I didn’t die, I was a Brett Favre,” he said, punctuating with a hearty laugh his comparison to the resilient, retired Green Bay Packers quarterback.

“That happens in Wisconsin. We got on this treatment and here I am.” This summer he returned to Historicon in Fredericksburg, Va.

Bridging the gap

Gerald Swick, former president of Historical Miniatures Gaming Society MidSouth, a hobby club that covers most of the South, credits Seifried for bringing historical and fantasy gaming together.

“Duke was unusual in that he had a foot in both camps,” Swick said. “He

“ The historıcal people sometimes turn their noses up at the fantasy people. The fantasy people sometimes turn their noses up at what they call the hysterıcal people.

I find no difference, and so I have done mostly blending. I don’t want to see people divided.”

thought, ‘We can use this to introduce younger gamers into historical miniatures gaming,’ which was for a long while a graying hobby.”

Seifried’s glad he crossed that bridge.

“The historical people sometimes turn their noses up at the fantasy people. The fantasy people sometimes turn their noses up at what they call the hysterical people. I find no difference, and so I have done mostly blending. I don’t want to see people divided.”

Baker said some of her husband’s popularity with the fantasy gamers stems from six massive displays of beloved writer J.R.R. Tolkien’s adventures.

“He was acquainted with J.R.R. Tolkien and was a guest in his home,” she said. “He created hobbits for J.R.R.’s children when they were young.”

Perhaps his greatest regret was turning down an invitation to have lunch at Tolkien’s home with the Inksters, a group of writers. He had to attend a meeting in London and later learned that among the Inksters that day was Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis, a close friend of Tolkien’s.

Video games have greatly increased interest in tabletop competitions, says Bruce “Duke” Seifried ’57 as he strategizes over miniatures of his own making during Gen Con 2015.

Taking on a starring role

This summer Seifried starred in War Room, a pilot episode of the fantasy web series Chaldea, part graphic novel, part live action film posted at worldofchaldea.com. He played a toymaker of miniature war-game figurines. One of his dioramas is featured in that episode, and he said plans call for featuring others of his in future episodes.

Peter Adkison, chief executive officer of Hostile Work Environment, which produced Chaldea, has known Seifried for about a decade. Adkison, who co-founded Wizards of the Coast, cast Seifried in Chaldea “to honor his legacy.”

As for honors, Seifried has earned many including the Callie from Origins, which his wife calls the “Oscars of the gaming world," and the Scruby from the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

(HMGS). He also has been inducted into the HMGS Legion of Honor.

For Seifried, there’s always a next project. These days he’s working on Alexander the Great, another diorama set in ancient times — his favorite historical period. While he paints miniature figurines in a high-contrast way so they can be seen from as far as 3 feet, he enjoys letting his mind drift back in time.

“Back then, a trip that took in several hundred miles took you to entirely different cultures, entirely different attitudes, entirely different ways,” he said. “I find it fascinating. I have a great thirst for that.”

Margo Kissell is news and feature writer in Miami’s university news and communications office.

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Lisa Pape ’88 is on a mission to eliminate homelessness among veterans

Home A P LAC E TO CA L L

THE SUN GLEAMS, the palms sway, it’s postcard LA. Yet even in paradise, temperatures can sink into the 30s in late January. Especially on the streets. Lisa Pape ’88 is on Skid Row in Los Angeles, talking with homeless people.

Her involvement is part of the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of homeless coordinated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The statistical snapshot guides policy development throughout the year.

PIT is numerical, of course, but for Pape, it’s intensely personal.

As national director of Homeless Programs for the Veterans Health Administration within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), she has helped lead the push that has

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reduced homelessness among veterans by nearly 33 percent from 2009–2014.

“Living on the streets is harder than any of us could ever imagine,” Pape said via email of her Skid Row experience. “I was proud listening to VA staff and community volunteers let veterans know that the VA was ready and able to help.”

Pape has been dealing with the roots of veteran homelessness — housing shortages, employment problems, substance abuse, and mental and physical health issues — since joining the VA in 1990. She was in the vanguard when Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness was announced in late 2009, setting the agency’s goal to eradicate homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015.

The program has received a 300 percent increase in federal funding since President Obama took office.

While most experts don’t expect full housing by Dec. 31, 2015, the progress is impressive: 74,054 homeless veterans in 2009, according to the PIT Count, down to 49,933 in 2014 — a reduction of 32.6 percent.

“We are thrilled,” Pape said, “but we know there is still more that needs to be done. Our efforts won’t be good enough until every community has the capacity to connect veterans to the housing resources and services they need as quickly as possible.”

Pape and her staff work with nonprofits across the country on Housing First, securing safe shelter above all, then helping veterans with other services they need to transition to civilian life.

BY B ETSA M A R SH

HOW TO HELP “If you know or meet a veteran who is currently homeless, please don’t ignore them,” urges Lisa Pape ’88, national director of Homeless Programs for the Veterans Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “Ask them if they would like assistance, and then offer to call the Homeless Hot Line — 1-877-4AID-VET (1-877-424-3838) to get them connected with services.” To find the nearest VA facility: www. va.gov/directory/guide/home.asp. For more detailed information on VA Programs for Homeless Veterans: www.va.gov/homeless.

A native of Brunswick, Ohio, Pape has been exploring veterans’ concerns since she was a student at Miami. During her summers, she worked at a gas station across the street from the VA Medical Center in Brecksville, Ohio.

“The campus was mainly used as a rehabilitation center for veterans suffering from drug/alcohol abuse, those who were homeless, and [those who needed] psychiatric care.

Veterans would come in and get their cigarettes, coffee, and sodas — and at times they would share their stories, their plans to change their lives, and [how] they were working in their 12-step programs.

“All the veterans I interacted with had hope and motivation to become the strong, resilient men and women that they were when they were soldiers. Somewhere along the line, they fell on hard times, and they wanted to make a change. It was at that point when I really knew I wanted to work for the VA. It was another experience for me that solidified my destiny.”

She had always been drawn to help people. “I read this story in Reader’s Digest when I was 12 or 13 about a seeing-eye dog and the training it got from a social service agency.

That story spoke to me, and though I couldn’t articulate it at the time, it helped me realize my calling. To be a social worker.”

Family and friends urged her to look instead toward the bigger paychecks of banking or engineering. But Pape was focused. She studied psychology at Miami, with dual minors in gerontology and social work.

“In college, I did a couple of social service jobs,” she said. At the “local drop-in center and hotline, we answered phones or talked with anyone who came in and wanted to talk.

That experience taught me to listen and empathize.”

She earned a master’s in social work from Case Western Reserve University in 1990 before joining the VA.

This “enabled me to help former soldiers and provided me the mission I was looking for.”

Whether she’s testifying before Congress or meeting veterans temporarily without a roof, Pape never wavers from that mission. She is spurred by a quote from Deepak Chopra, “You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.”

Pape works with communities “to ensure that there is no wrong door for veterans seeking help. I have come to understand how close so many of us are to becoming homeless. Minimumwage employment does not cover housing costs anywhere in the United States. This puts a lot of people at risk for homelessness: one paycheck away from not being able to pay your rent because of life events — loss of a job, health issues, child care, or any other extra expense that comes up and may impact the delicate balance.”

She sees that off-kilter balance every day, never more clearly than during her Skid Row work.

“Being there,” she recalled “reinvigorated me to work harder, smarter, better, and more collaboratively with our partners who are all working toward the same goal — ending homelessness for veterans and for all Americans.

“Service members should never have to find themselves without a place to call home.”

Betsa Marsh is a freelance writer in Cincinnati and a frequent contributor to Miamian.

Fall 2015

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Teaching and researching in the shadow of American beekeeping’s “father,” apiculturist Alex Zomchek works to save the invaluable pollinator

Plight of the Honeybee

BY DONNA BOEN ’83 MTSC ’96 24

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G

oogle the word honeybee, and you’ll likely come across this quote, attributed to Albert Einstein: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”

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Certified master beekeeper Alex Zomchek heard this quote so often that he decided to follow the same advice he gives his Miami University students: Question, research, verify.

He “dug and dug and dug” and could not find any reputable source that traced these alarming words back to the brilliant physicist.

Zomchek’s bigger concern?

“It’s not true that Einstein said it, but is it true?” If the honeybee disappears from the planet, will humans soon follow?

No. That’s Zomchek’s short answer.

His detailed explanation is sobering in its own right.

More than loss of honey One-third of all our food is the result of pollination, 80 percent of which is accomplished by honeybees, states the National Honey Board. That would be our apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries … the list goes on to include most of our fruits and vegetables.

That’s $15 billion worth of crops in the U.S. that are pollinated by bees, according to the National Resources Defense Council. If the bees disappeared, the few fruits and vegetables pollinated in other ways likely would only be affordable for the well-off.

Humans would survive because we have other sources for proteins, vitamins, and minerals, Zomchek theorizes, but these would be poor substitutes.

“We can maintain health,” he says.

“Certainly nothing like what you’re used to seeing today.”

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So, it’s obvious. We need bees. Why the concern?

They are dying at alarming rates. Ohio alone suffered a 53 percent loss this past year, says Zomchek, president of the Butler County Beekeepers Association.

Also a director in the statewide beekeepers association, he is working with the Ohio Department of Agriculture to develop more educational programs and simpler testing kits — in hopes of lowering the mortality rate this winter.

The escalating death rate is cause for one of Zomchek’s many “night sweats moments.” It was only five years ago that the mortality range was 20-25 percent.

When he started studying the insect at age 10, the die-off rate hovered around 3-5 percent.

“There is nothing indicating yet that we’re going to stop that curve and slow that curve down,” he says.

“If you’re buying my science that honeybees have been around for 150 to 200 million years, and suddenly, we find honeybees at such high mortality rates, you have to ask yourself, what’s going on and how bad is this for us?”

A boy and bee story In another place, another time some 45 years ago, Zomchek was introduced to beekeeping, a passion that has “haunted” him ever since that first encounter.

It was a summer morning in Summit Lake, Wis., and the 10-year-old was

running with a pack of boys through a stranger’s backyard.

Whether luck, fate, or providence, the homeowner came out at that moment to harvest honey from his two hives.

Caught, Zomchek froze.

The tall, lanky, elderly man was all the more frightening to the lad because of his missing hand, which the vet lost in World War II. Attempting to put the boy at ease, he walked over to one of the hives.

“The next thing I knew,” Zomchek says, “he literally, with no veil, no bee suit, no nothing, popped the top off of this colony and pulled out a frame of perfectly tapped honey.”

Stunned, the boy followed the man’s command and tasted it. With the sweet nectar still exploding in his mouth, Zomchek went home with a burning passion, wanting to know how he survived his first encounter with honeybees.

“The little I knew at that time was surely one of us should have been stung to death.”

Valuable invention That boy had a lot to learn. He set up his own hives and studied them and the lessons outlined by others, including those of Lorenzo Langstroth, “The Bee-Man of Oxford,” who is also known as the Father of American Beekeeping.

In his 1853 beekeeper’s manual, Langstroth on the Hive and Honey-Bee, Langstroth wrote that this insect was capable of being tamed or domesticated to a “most surprising degree.”

“Many persons have been unable to control their expressions of wonder and astonishment, on seeing me open hive after hive, in my experimental Apiary … removing the combs covered with bees … and, in short, dealing with them as if they were as harmless as so many flies,” he wrote.

Outer Cover Inner Cover Extracting Super Queen Excluder

Brood Chamber

M OVA B LE E IV FR A M E H

Botton Board Hive Stand

The “Bee-Man of Oxford,” Lorenzo Langstroth invented the movable frame hive and turned a backyard avocation into a major agribusiness.

Langstroth is still well-known throughout the beekeeping world because of his invention — the movable frame hive. It turned a backyard hobby into a major industry and is still used today.

In the mid-1800, the United States was growing, and farmers were being challenged to produce more for the increasing population. They did, but twice as many apple trees didn’t produce twice as many apples. They just couldn’t place enough pollinators in their orchards during the two-week blooming cycle to get the job done.

Then along came Langstroth’s invention, which took advantage of “bee space,” a 3/8-inch gap, the only dimension bees won't fill with comb or propolis. As a result, unlike other hives of his day in which bees glued the frames to the hive, his frames could be removed without damaging the honey, the hive, or the bees.

Never before had humans enjoyed “complete control of the combs,”

according to Langstroth. With more control came more bees and vastly bigger crops.

The moment was ripe for agribusiness to blossom. Zomchek’s favorite example of the resulting success is the almond in California.

Talking to his students in the botany and zoology labs at Miami’s Ecology Research Center (ERC), Zomchek explains that the almond is the first crop in the U.S. every spring that has to be pollinated by bees. The California growers rent approximately 1.6 million beehives for the few weeks nearly 1 million acres are in bloom.

“That kind of industry had gone on for decades and decades and decades,” Zomchek says. “And the fields got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until there was no looking back.

“It was never thought that there would be a problem. Bees have been around forever, we have this perfect solution, and then all of a sudden varroa comes on.”

Fight for life Varroa. A reddish brown mite with eight legs. The size of a pepper flake, it is destroying our honeybees.

Just as honeybees aren’t native to North America, neither are varroa mites.

Historians estimate that European colonists brought the first wicker skep or basket of honeybees over on the earliest ships because these “white man’s flies” had settled in Virginia by 1622. Some 365 years later, another beekeeper violated a decades-old quarantine and brought in varroa-infected honeybees, most likely from eastern Asia.

Several sources cite September 1987 as the first recorded case of varroa infestation in the U.S. after hives transported from Florida to Wisconsin experienced colony failure.

“Literally overnight, we noticed that the colonies were just dropping. The numbers were big,” Zomchek says.

“There are no beehives in the United States today that do not have varroa as a primary agent.”

In other words, this problem must be solved.

Not surprisingly, Zomchek has never been a fan of pesticides, but chemicals seemed to be the strongest weapon in the arsenal.

Finding one that would kill the mite and not hurt the host was a “trick with a hole in it” because mites attach

MISNOMER ABOUT BEES A swarm of bees that is either temporarily in a tree or flying by us in a massive swarm is not dangerous, according to beekeeper Alex Zomchek. “These are children of the hive, and they’re fat and sassy.

They’ve gorged themselves on honey before they left, so it’s almost physically impossible for them to arch their abdomen in such a way to sting you, and they’re not focused on you anyway. They’re focused on going ahead and starting a new colony.”

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FUN FACTS Ed Bell, aka Dr. B, earned a master’s in college student personnel services from Miami in 1985.

After a 27-year career as a university administrator, he is now a professional educator/beekeeper in Oswego, Ill. On his website, Belfry Bees & Honey, he offers many fun facts.

Here are several.

HONEYBEES… are the only insects to produce food for humans. account for

80% of all insect pollination.

visit (approx.)

2 million blossoms to produce

one pound of honey, about

55,000 miles. are not aggressive by nature and will not sting unless protecting their hive from an intruder or are unduly provoked.

How many bees does a hive usually contain? Up to

60,000.

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“It was never thought that there would be a problem.

Bees have been around forever.”

— Alex Zomchek

themselves to the bee to puncture the body and suck its fluids. Any solution has to be safe for the bee and its products.

Six miticides met those criteria.

For a while. Four no longer work.

The remaining two are expected to lose their effectiveness as well.

“It isn’t but a few short years before these mites find a way to transcend whatever chemical agent we put in there,” Zomchek says.

Worse yet, mites are carriers of bacterial and viral diseases that have weakened the honeybee.

Conceding that the mites aren’t going away, Zomchek is among a group of academics who’ve decided to examine the problem from the other side. If they can’t kill the mites, can they create hybrid bees with survival characteristics?

This line of questioning has returned Zomchek to his beginnings as a naturalist. Now focused on genetics with an eye toward strengthening the stock, he’s breeding heartier, healthier queen bees and drones with more diversity.

Following big footsteps He works with his hives at the ERC, Miami’s 200-acre field station on the north end of the Oxford campus. Zomchek, known as the bee whisperer, is ever

mindful that he is conducting genetic research only a few miles from where Langstroth lived and studied.

Although Langstroth’s hives and 10 acres of apples trees, buckwheat, clover, and flowers are long gone, his home still stands.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the modest two-story sits in the shadows of Bachelor Hall on the east side of the Oxford campus. It is a memorial to Langstroth and the nearly 30 years the Congregational minister, husband, and father of three spent there.

Langstroth Cottage provided shelter for a gentle and loving man who sought refuge from debilitating depression by spending his days outside with his honeybees.

To this day, beekeepers across the country come to see the cottage and pay homage to the man.

Zomchek has known of Oxford, Ohio, ever since he was a boy studying Langstroth’s work.

He remembered the name when he and his wife, an engineer at the time, were looking for a small, college town to start their young family.

“The idea of coming here and doing work here was amazing.

It’s inspiring to be in this place.”

He would appreciate any inspiration Langstroth could send his way if it meant

discovering a permanent solution for healthy honeybees.

“Bees equal food and yet there are not a dozen people in this country right now who are working on this,” he says. He believes part of the problem is that their work is so underfunded and undervalued.

His dream is to take genetics to the next level now that researchers have cracked the code to cryogenically freeze

Bee whisperer Alex Zomchek avoids breathing on the insects because they hate carbon dioxide.

drone sperm in a way that will maintain its viability for decades. He envisions a drone semen bank, much like a seed bank, for researchers and commercial beekeepers needing healthy stock.

And wouldn’t it be grand if Langstroth Cottage, which currently houses staff for the Butler County Regional Transit Authority, became that center? Academics, the public, and private industry could come together under its roof to collaborate on solving this and future problems involving the honeybee.

“Make the cottage a galvanizing point, a physical metaphor,” Zomchek suggests. “That’s a great opportunity as there is no organization that’s trying to put all these parts together.

“It’s certainly an intellectual challenge, but the practical application and concerns for our food industry are demanding that this work be done.”

Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 is editor of Miamian

HERE’S THE BUZZ As beekeeper Alex Zomchek tells the story, before Lorenzo Langstroth’s advances, fans of bee’s sweet nectar used several tricks to find hives, usually discovered in trees.

You, as the “hunter,” would go into a field full of foraging bees and gather several into a little, covered, wooden box. You’d then open the lid to let out one bee, whose instinct is to head straight home.

You would follow it until you lost its trail. At that point, you’d open the box again and let out a second bee, following it the same way you did the first. You’d continue this exercise until you found the tree with its sweet reward. And that’s how the term beeline was born.

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love & honor

No Heavy Lifting Required #MoveInMiami Day Unites Miami Family

By Vince Frieden

Miami University’s move-in day is not just for freshmen and

their families anymore.

Beginning in 2014, Miami launched its award-winning #MoveInMiami day-of-giving campaign that reconnects alumni with memories of their own move-in days. It also unites them in supporting the incoming class and future generations of Miami students — without ever having to lift a box.

The participation-driven effort encourages donors to make gifts of any size to whatever is most meaningful to them at Miami. It plays out live on social media — with an initial goal this year of attaining 2,019 donors in 20 hours and 19 minutes in honor of the incoming class. In addition, the continual updates, challenges, trivia, and shared memories advance a national Miami conversation.

Through its first two years, #MoveInMiami has raised more than $1.1 million from 6,500+ gifts and has been particularly successful among young alumni.

“The day is a celebration of Miami and what it means to our alumni and friends,” said Brad Bundy Hon. ’13, senior associate vice president for development. “It’s also a reminder of how every gift makes a real difference in the life of the university and our students.”

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Vince Frieden is associate director of development communications in university advancement.

love & honor

B Y

T H E

N U M B E R S

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days of old

Oxford’s Gracious First Lady Wedgwood plate (above) depicts Scott House. (Walter Havighurst Special Collections, Miami University Libraries) Photo below, taken by Mathew Brady, is of First Lady Caroline Scott Harrison, first president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with DAR’s first executive board.

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Ever since Benjamin Harrison was elected 23rd president of the United States, Miami University has boasted of this favored son. In large part, Miami owns these bragging rights because of his wife, Oxford native Caroline Scott Harrison.

Carrie made a good partner for the reserved Harrison, Class of 1852. Gracious and warm with a keen sense of humor, she was a popular first lady.

In Remembering Caroline Scott Harrison: Oxford, Ohio’s First Lady, Marjorie Foster Bowers ’62 recounts how she was the first to have a decorated Christmas tree in the White House.

First lady from 1889-1892, she had electricity installed in the White House and began the tradition of standing for the National Anthem to initiate a new patriotism after the Civil War. “Searching for ways to improve the status of women, she urged her husband to hire a woman as the White House stenographer,” Bower writes.

“This was the first woman to be employed in a job, other than domestic service, at the White House.”

Caroline was born in 1832 to Miami’s first science professor, John Scott. He went on to teach at Farmers’ College in Cincinnati, then moved his family back to Oxford to be first president of Oxford Female Institute.

Harrison, who met Caroline while a student at Farmers’, followed her to Oxford and entered Miami as a junior. According to Ophia Smith in A Daughter of Old Oxford, Ben and Carrie spent so many evenings sitting together on the porch of Scott House while courting that classmates called him the “pious moonlight dude.”

They married in the front room of Scott House in 1853. Although the house, which had been across the street from the women’s school, is long gone, Miami purchased the closed school’s properties in 1928.

Oxford College for Women’s main building served as a residence hall until 1998. It is now the Oxford Community Arts Center.

“Autumn teaches us a valuable lesson. During summer, all the green trees are beautiful. But there is no time of the year when the trees are more beautiful than when they are different colors. Diversity adds beauty to our world.”

— Donald Hicks, Look into the stillness

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Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID

Burlington, VT 05401 Permit No. 396

INSPIRATION POLLINATION: Environmental artist Melanie Dickerson Oliva ’99 has launched Inspiration Pollination, an online community of artists and creators intent on influencing others through their work in response to the White House’s announcement in May that pollinators are at serious risk for extinction. Using the Ice Bucket Challenge as her model, Oliva enjoined the original 200 members to post a pollinator-focused project on Facebook and pass the challenge on to four more. As the group gains a larger following, she hopes to turn it into a nonprofit that will foster community efforts and help other artists with similar environmental aspirations. For more information, visit the Inspiration Pollination group page on Facebook, follow on Instagram @inspirationpollination and Twitter @inspr8npollin8n, or email inspirationpollination@gmail.com.

Read more about the Plight of the Honeybee on page 24.

“UPRISING” ARTWORK BY LEIF ERIK JOHANSEN