Barometer The Daily
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2012 • OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY CORVALLIS, OREGON 97331
DAILYBAROMETER.COM
VOLUME CXV, NUMBER 74
PAGE 8
SPORTS
8 – Women’s hoops wins fourth in a row
NEWS
2 – More Oakland occupiers arrested
FORUM
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Beavers defeat Utah by 13.
4 – Thoughts on Harrison Apartments
Land surveyors, agricultural workers attend GPS workshops
Sunny days of winter
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Civil, construction engineering school workshop focuses on increased accuracy of GPS By Annecy Beauchemin The Daily Barometer
Sarah Gillihan
| THE DAILY BAROMETER
Kelley Engineering Center receives the sun’s rays on Friday afternoon — the first clear, warmer day of last weekend. The sunshine is expected to remain for the better part of this week.
Animal shelter goes Hollywood n
Annual fundraising at Heartland Humane Society event draws Corvallis locals with auction, wine tasting By Amanda Antell The Daily Barometer
On the evening of Saturday, Feb. 4, Heartland Humane Society hosted their ninth annual Wine and Whiskers fundraiser for the city of Corvallis. The “Hollywood’s Red Carpet” themed event this year hosted hundreds of donors and benefactors that came to support the animal shelter. People showed up as early as 5 p.m., and were still lined up at 6:30. “This is the first time we’ve sold out a week before the event; we’re very excited,” said Anna
Lopez, Heartland Humane Society’s development director. Lopez has worked for Heartland for four years, and is in charge of fundraising events. There have been nine Wine and Whisker fundraisers in past years. Wine and Whiskers is Heartland’s biggest annual fundraiser. Last year it had generated more than $70,000 from local supporters, and this year was expected to exceed that amount. The Wine and Whisker event itself was a silent auction and dinner followed by a live auction. The guests were entertained with wine tasting, bidding on items and refreshments. There were three rooms set up for auctioning, one row of items were displayed in the entrance hall, and several were displayed in the corridors
between the rooms. The first was the green room, with no particular theme or value to the selection of the items. This room was the first to close auction at 6:30 p.m., followed by the silver screen room at 6:45 p.m. and then the red carpet room at 7 p.m. There were many notable items of value, from jewelry to a wedding kimono from Japan. At 7 p.m., dinner was served and the live auction began, which sold the most expensive prizes. These items were a free vacation where the winner could choose from three locations: Vancouver B.C., San Diego or Las Vegas; a month of day care service; an opportunity to have an artist paint a mural of a pet; and a surprise box of adult toys. The purpose of the fundraiser was not just to See FUNDRAISING | page 3
Academic counseling holds symposium for student support n
Gathering intended to encourage interaction, inspire ideas for academic counseling By Katja Kozber
The Daily Barometer
Last Thursday, the Council on Academic Counseling held a symposium to “bring everyone together for a great conversation” about academic counseling, according to Laura Smithers. The CAC was formed in 2009 by Susie Brubaker-Cole, who brought together Oregon State University’s different academic counseling offices into one community, allowing members to learn from each other and develop their support of college students not only on our campus, but nationally. The Holistic Academic Counseling Symposium was the CAC’s first “big interaction on campus, but the first
of many,” Smithers said. The goal of the event was to inspire conversation about academic counseling: methods, experiences, ideologies, etc., between the symposium’s participants from OSU as well as other colleges and programs. It also focused on the importance of counseling to the student body and “put us in context historically,” said Janet Nishihara, co-chair of the CAC. The symposium opened with introductions followed by a presentation from Dr. Hunter Boylan, director of the National Center for Developmental Education, professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina and an established presence in developmental education. Boylan spoke to the group about the principles of mentoring, as well as validated the importance of academic counseling on our campus and as a profession across the
nation. “We frequently don’t realize the importance of what we do for the nation, for our future generation,” Boylan said. “Other people don’t recognize that either, and it’s our responsibility to make sure they do.” Boylan explained the impact of life issues, circumstantial stresses and even relationship problems on whether a student graduates or not. He called upon counselors to not only get students on the right track, but to provide them with the support, understanding and encouragement they need to reach their life goals. He emphasized the importance of diversity in higher education, for the physical, mental and emotional growth of a campus. He went on to explain how differing cultures can bring their own challenges for both the students and faculty, challenges that counselors need to help both
sides overcome. “You don’t have to give up your culture to go where you want to go,” Boylan said, emphasizing that diversity is not something to overcome, but rather work with. After his first presentation and prior to his second, which went into greater depth on mentoring, the symposium consisted of group presentations, discussions and collaborations meant to broaden the perspectives and strategies of each participant. Members of the CAC are hopeful that this symposium is the first step toward an increased presence on campus that will result in a more rewarding relationship between students and their college. Whatever a student’s concern, the CAC is happy to provide support and guidance. Katja Kozber, staff reporter 737-2231 news@dailybarometer.com
On Feb. 2 and 3, two workshops were held on the use and structure of the Oregon Real-Time GPS Network in Owen Hall as part of a geomatics program organized by College of Civil and Construction Engineering professor Bob Schultz. The workshop on Thursday was for professionals who are less experienced with the use of GPS for surveying. Participants learned basic principles of GPS use to introduce first-time users to the technology, but the workshop also served to reinforce the skills of those who already use it. Knowledge the participants gained in the workshop setting was put to use through the completion of a hands-on project. Friday’s workshop was for those who are more advanced and wished to increase their accuracy with corrections provided by the ORGN. Ken Bays, an instructor of the workshop, is the lead Geodetic surveyor of the Oregon Department of Transportation and a technical administrator of ORGN. “This class,” he said, “gives us a chance to teach people about our network.” The ORGN provides corrections for GPS collected in real time throughout the state of Oregon, addressing the accuracy problem of GPS. “If you go out with an uncorrected GPS, its accuracy is limited,” Bays said. An uncorrected GPS may only be accurate within a few yards. Depending on professional and/or academic needs, a few yards can be a significant inaccuracy. The goal of the ORGN is to increase accuracy to within two centimeters. “We have stations all around the state and they collect data 24/7. That data is constantly streamed back to our headquarters in Salem,” Bays said. This data, gathered on-site, is more accurate than that of an ordinary GPS. The corrections are gathered on a computer and made available to GPS users over the Internet. Gaining and using access to these corrections, as well as the general structure of the network, was the focus of Bays’ workshop. The workshops made clear through their high price of more than $150 that they were intended to educate professionals as opposed to students. While many events on and around campus offer a student discount, the workshops in Owen were an exception. Nancy Brickman of the College of Civil and Construction Engineering said the GPS series “is available to students, but there is no price discount.” Students cannot rely on their student account, either. If they cannot pay by the time of the workshop, they can only hope for their attendance to be sponsored by their department. Potential participants got the message. The audience for the workshops was not one of students but of mostly land surveyors, precision agriculture users and others from beyond the university who stand to benefit from See GPS | page 3