SoundBites newsletter May 2016

LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES

W • THE P VIE

ORT • U.S. N E EP

W • THE P VIE

NCETON RE RI

GER’S • K IN

2016

S & WORLD R EW

’S • KIPL ER

S potlig ht :

2015

NCETON RE RI COLLEGES THAT

PAY YOU BACK 2015

NCETON RE RI

2016

GREEN COLLEGES

BEST COLLEGES

W • THE P VIE

BEST VALUES

353

& WORLD R WS

• ORT U.S. N EP

100

IPL • K ING

TOP

NCETON RE RI

W • THE P VIE

INGER’ S IPL

President: Tuajuanda C. Jordan, PhD

Dave Kung, professor of mathematics

May 2016

Dave Kung has been a member of the faculty since 2000.

Before there were Ted Talks, there were The Great Courses: college-level lecture classes in long-form video and audio created for those with “a lifelong passion for learning.” Dave Kung, professor of mathematics, has been teaching “How Music and Mathematics Relate” with The Great Courses program for six years now, and has a new course, “Mind-Bending Math: Riddles and Paradoxes.”

How did The Great Courses find you?

The Great Courses folks have recruiters at conferences looking for charismatic professors who engage well with the audience.

Back in 2010, I gave one of the invited lectures at the Joint Math Meetings, the largest math conference in the world. That’s where they found me. They visited one of my classes at St. Mary’s, and then invited me up to tape an audition for them.

How did you decide what to teach?

My first course with them was on the connections between mathematics and music. That was a topic their customers had been clamoring for, and as a violinist since age 4, I was a natural fit. I later proposed the idea of the Mind-Bending Math course, and we worked together to create and refine it.

I’ve always loved puzzles and paradoxes, so I was excited about this opportunity to share my interest with a wider audience.

Is it hard to “make math fun”?

Math is fun! Ideas like infinity turn out to be much crazier than we first think. The green screen they use to create the videos opens up a world of possibilities for convincing others that it all makes sense.

What is the wackiest thing you have done on camera?

A newsletter for the community, faculty, staff and students.

Dave Kung with his new Great Course: “Mind-Bending Math: Riddles and Paradoxes.”

students. Through these lectures, I’ve already reached many times that. When a catalog goes out with “Mind-Bending Math” on the front, nearly a million people receive it. Every week, I get a few emails from students around the world asking interesting questions and pointing me towards cool related ideas to explore or consider.

How does your work on The Great Courses relate back to St. Mary’s?

Last fall, I used their videos to teach my First-Year Seminar on Mind-Bending Math. I believe we should study paradoxes because they are exactly the topics that force us to question previouslyheld views about the world.

Faced with a paradox, you might question your belief structure, and actually change your mind.

The semester-long assignment my students have — the hardest assignment I’ve ever given — is to change their own minds about something important. Think about it: we all know we’re not right about everything, but when was the last time you actually changed your mind? That may be the biggest paradox of all.

A Day of Pause & IDEs Initiatives “On Wednesday, April 6th, we entered a conversation about complex and sensitive issues that are impacting the St. Mary’s College community and the nation. I am confident that we can continue the progress we made on that day.”

— President Tuajuanda C. Jordan Progress and other related topics can be found on the new website (www.smcm.edu/ides) for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDEs). The new site is part of the work of five groups formed to move the College forward on IDEs issues.

Talents Celebrated at Awards Convocation Congratuations to the these faculty and staff on their awards:

You can find both of Dave Kung’s courses at: www.thegreatcourses.com

At one point, I play catch with myself, throwing a ball out the left side of the screen and having it come back in at the right.

Once, I punched oobleck (a non-Newtonian fluid), and the camera guys put a time-lapse view of the shoot on Youtube.

What is the best part of the gig?

The best part is the privilege of communicating with a wider audience. In my entire career at SMCM, I might teach 6,000

Want More?

News, Student and Faculty accomplishments: www.smcm.edu/news Campus Events Calendar: www.smcm.edu/events/calendar 240.895.2000 | www.smcm.edu | SoundBites is produced by the Office of Marketing, Strategic Communications and Web Services.

Sam Goddard won the Joe Carroll Memorial Staff Award.

Awards Convocation was held April 22 to recognize the accomplishments of students, faculty and staff. The event opened with a performance by Jordan McRae ’16 (saxophone) and Rosemary Ligsay ’18 (piano) and one by PING, directed by Larry Vote (prof. of music).

Wes Jordan (prof of neurosciences and psychology): Homer L. Dodge Award for Outstanding Service.

Barrett Emerick (asst. prof. of philosophy): Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Junior Faculty Member.

Diana Boros (asst. prof. of political science): Norton T. Dodge Award for Scholarly and Creative Achievement by a Junior Faculty Member.

José Ballesteros (prof. of Spanish): Steven Muller Distinguished Professorship in the Arts.

Sybol Anderson (assoc. prof. of philosophy): Andy Kozak Faculty Contribution to Student Life Award.

Sam Goddard (general trades mechanic): Joe Carroll Memorial Staff Award.

Stu d en t R es earch S po t l i g h t :

Phillip Cappello’ 16

Got Kudzu? Get Goats!

Undergraduate Research Week (April 11-15), sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research, provided an opportunity to share the impactful and engrossing research of our students. The research presented below is one of five highlights from that week. Read the others at www.smcm.edu/news/category/undergraduate-research-week/.

Phillip Cappello ’16 is a dual major in economics and public policy with a minor in political science.

His St. Mary’s Project is entitled “Legalized Marijuana: An Examination Of The Economics And Policy Implications Of Legalized Cannabis.” Asif Dowla (prof. of economics) is his faculty mentor.

Cappello’s research is intended to guide lawmakers through some of the cost-benefit analyses and other considerations to legalize recreational marijuana sensibly.

“One of the biggest benefits for the states that have legalized marijuana is the tax revenue,” Cappello notes. “In Colorado, the retail sales for marijuana last year reached $996 million, and the state took 25% of that in new taxes. If all 50 states had the same policy, it would yield $4.6 billion in state tax revenue and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenue annually.” Cappello goes on to explore different fee and tax structures that states can employ, including a per unit sales tax to be paid by the grower, a percentage excise tax, and a retail tax on non-medical sales. He also suggests that states follow the Marijuana Policy Project’s recommendations of indexing new taxes to inflation.

“Finding the right tax rate and structure is important, because if the taxes are too high, you bolster the black market, but if they are too low, the states are losing an important source of revenue,” Cappello notes. “Even with a 25% tax rate, which sounds high, most people will abandon the black market in favor of products that are regulated for purity and that are legal to acquire.” So, there is a lot of wiggle room for states looking to make money while reducing the number of people committing “victimless crimes,” who burden the criminal justice system by clogging up the courts, and taking up jail cells that are costly to maintain.

Kudzu is an aggressive invasive plant species found all across the United States, including on the campus of St. Mary’s College.

Research has shown that goats can be used as an effective biological control agent against kudzu. This was the focus of the St. Mary’s Project by Brooke Bartko ’16 and mentored by Bob Paul, professor of biology. On April 17, 40 goats, provided by Browsing Green Goats of Southern Maryland, were released into a one-acre enclosure heavy with kudzo. The herd grazed the area, night and day, for a week. After foliage removal, college grounds crews will be able to remove the kudzo’s crown roots to eliminate regrowth.

Bartko’s research was sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

Phil Cappello ’16

Cappello warns states that they need to proceed carefully before opening up the market, in order to reduce the negative economic impacts of legalization. “They’ll need to mitigate negative consequences of marijuana usage, which are similar to the consequences of alcohol and cigarette use,” Cappello explains. “For example, they can use some of the tax revenue for education programs aimed at reducing underage consumption, and investing in healthcare to offset increased costs associated with potential accidents caused by DUIs. In this way, legalization can pay its own way at the state level and also reduce its burden on society.”

Finally, Cappello explores some of the other policies that states may want to employ when creating the new recreational marijuana market, including banning vertical integration between growers, processors and retailers, to avoid marijuana monopolies and price fixing.

Cappello’s paper will be available this fall, when Massachusetts’s legislators take up the possibility of legalizing cannabis.

He hopes they will consider his findings, and implement his proposals.

What’s Happening in Sports

Melissa Barall ’18 became the first Seahawk tennis player since Brett Bunch ‘99 to be regionally ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Barall earned a ranking of No. 24 in the Division III Atlantic South regional rankings released April 14.

Sensational Students Ari Pluznik ’16 is headed to the Peace Corps in Mozambique where he will teach science.

Will Schaffer ’18 has been accepted to the London School of Economics for the academic year 2016-17.

Kudos to...

Kelly Neiles (asst. prof. of chemistry) and Ivy Todd ’16 co-authored the paper “Establishing the Validity of Using Network Analysis Software for Measuring Students’ Mental Storage of Chemistry Concepts,”which was published in the Journal of Chemical Education.

Karen Anderson (assoc. prof. of English) had her latest poetry volume, “Receipt: Poems,” featured on Food52’s “Weekend Reads.” Food52 is a food media ‘clearinghouse’ run by the New York Times.

Jennifer Cognard-Black (prof. of English) earned a Gold medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards contest for her anthology, “From Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines” (Mich. State Univ. Press, 2016).

Sahra Grube is the new office administrator for the Office of Int’l Education. Previously she worked as a clerk for Physical Plant.

Bill Roberts (prof. of anthropology) presented posters at the Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting in April.

The first topic: “Commitment to Place, People and Positive Change Through PEACE: Ethical Challenges and Sustainable Impacts in Gambia, West Africa.” The second topic: “Studying Educational Change and Impact at Community and National Levels: A Mixed-Methods Approach in The Gambia, West Africa” with Deborah O’Donnell (assoc. prof. of psychology).

Cristin Cash (director of Boyden Gallery and assoc. professor of art history) has been awarded a curatorial residency at Playa in Summer Lake, Oregon. The residency provides Cash the opportunity to do collaborative work with photojournalist Gabriela Bulisova, as well work on her own curatorial projects.

Josh Wilcox is a new IT support technician. He formerly worked there as a student and contractual desktop support technician.