The Technician Magazine - Winter 2011

The Technician

Magazine What does The Technician have in common with Professor Bell?

Term Summary Good Beans & Good Business Provost on Kettering’s Future

G. Reginald Bell, ‘60 Chemistry Kettering’s Favorite Professor

Winter 2011

The Technician: Addicted to Winning!

At The Technician, we’re addicted to winning. We’re willing to ask tougher questions, work longer hours, and produce more interesting stories. We’re just not like a regular Kettering club; you can’t process this group with a normal brain. The newspaper always has more pages, more contributors, more points of view, and more photographs. You pick it up, look at the school it came from, and say “does not compute”. In fact, we at the student paper are tired of pretending we’re not special, like we don’t have tiger blood and — Editor’s Note: Mr. Meadows has been removed from The Technician’s editorial staff effective immediately. He has repeatedly refused to enter rehab, claiming to be able to find journalism majors in Kettering’s Communications program and to be able to conjure content “with the power of [his] mind.”

I would like to offer a hat tip to Charlie Sheen for the above. Please find a few serious comments below.

What’s Inside

It is the commitment of each staff member of the paper that makes The Technician successful. Their commitment extends from attending regular business meetings and collecting photos or announcements to hours spent conducting and recording interviews, writing thought-provoking prose, or researching the latest in collegiate amusements for the entertainment section. It has been a real honor and a great deal of fun to serve on the paper. Best wishes to all for a bright future as The Technician expands knowledge, shares opinions, entertains, and promotes the student voice!

Page 11

The Technician: Addicted to Winning!

Provost on the Future of Kettering

Page 4

Page 16

Term Recap

The Technician Staff

Node Chairs Invade Campus FCOP Requires Club Advertising Administration Hosts Town Hall

Page 5

“Promises of Freedom” at FIA Around Campus

Beta Theta Pi- A-Section Kettering Open Source Club KSG Student Senate

Page 7

Around Campus Kettering Chess Club

Kettering University Greek Life Page 8

Good Beans and Good Business Isaac Meadows Editor-in-chief 2009-2011

Magazine

Page 2

Page 6

It is with enormous gratitude to the people who have helped me as eic of The Technician that I take my leave. Dr. David Marshall and Betsy Homsher, the paper’s respective faculty and staff advisors, helped guide me forward in rethinking, rebuilding, and recruiting for the paper. Debbie Stewart and the Student Activities staff helped me file paperwork and arrange finances to keep the paper running when I had no idea what to do. Robert Hayes, Evan Brest, Tyler Van Eck, and most of all Allen Hillaker have been with me since my first term in charge of The Technician; there is no calculating the support and effort they have given me in this mad endeavor.

The Technician

Page 10

Photo Recap

Page 18

The Daily Bulldog

Editor-in-Chief Steps Down Kettering Sadie Hawkins Dance

Page 19

A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief Elect

Ed ito r-i n-Ch i e f Is a ac Mead ows A s s i sta n t Ed ito r s A l l en Hi l l a ker Chr ist ina Cut l er L ayo u t Ed ito r Matt he w W hite C o p y Ed ito r Ty l er Van Ec k O n l i n e Ed ito r R ob er t Hayes Ca m p us Li fe Ed ito r Mar i an Sw a g l er D i st r i bu t i o n Ed ito r Ryan Brow n P h oto g r a p h e r Matt he w Hol l and Sta ff Wr it e r s De v in Ar yan Evan Brest Korr ine Ketc hum Domini c Jand ra in John O l i ver Tony Tay l or Facu lt y Advi s o r Dr. Dav i d Marsha l l Sta ff Advi s o r B et s y Homsher T h e Te chni cian Ketter ing’s Stud ent Voi ce E-ma i l us at: atec hni c i an@ketter ing.ed u Onl ine at: w w w.t he-tec hni c i an.org and

Much like The Technician, Professor Reg Bell is addicted to winning.

Note, however, that neither Prof. Bell nor The Technician promotes irresponsible or underage drinking.

2

The Technician Magazine

issuu.com/t hetec hni c i an © T h e Te chni cian, 2011

3

Node Chairs Invade Campus, Draw Mixed Reaction

ing to left-handed student Tyler Van Eck. Overall, while the chairs provide an excellent platform for group discussion, they appear to be under-utilized in the purely lecture-based classes in which they Robert Hayes are currently used. While mathematics As a part of new capital improvement and computer science students currently projects across campus, two Academic use the new chairs, the chairs may find a Building classrooms were recently reno- warmer welcome on the fourth floor of vated and equipped with new mobile the Academic Building, in the liberal arts chairs. The new chairs, which include an classes for which they are ideally suited. adjustable desk surface, were purchased Christina Cutler and Anthony Taylor in an effort to create an active learning en- contributed reporting. vironment at Kettering. “Faculty decided that it was a better answer for flexibility in the classroom”, according to Dr. Karen Wilkinson, head of the Liberal Studies Department. What quickly became apparent, however, was that the rooms seMatthew White lected for the new chairs were less than ideal. The classrooms (3332 and 3334) are The Finance Council Operating used primarily for math and computer Procedures were published this term. science classes, which are not typically This document contains language that suited to open group discussion. holds clubs responsible for advertising all of their events and meetings.

Advertisements must be made accessible to all of the Kettering student body. Mr. AJ Brinks, president of Grill Club, called the measure important in an interview with The Technician. Failure to comply with this policy may result in funds being revoked. Although Finance Council Derek Hazard, a Senior III taking members Tim Litchty and Scott Builta Methods of Applied Mathematics in AB refused to comment on the policy di3332, says that “the chairs allow the room rectly, they noted that penalties are at the too much entropy. They aren’t conducive discretion of Finance Council. to learning and I find myself constantly distracted…” While the chairs are generally regarded as comfortable, concerns were raised about the suitability of the chairs’ writing surface for left-handed students. “It isn’t so bad overall, considering I’ve always had to deal with that kind of desk as a left-handed person.” accord-

FCOP Requires Club Advertising

4

The Technician Magazine

Administration Hosts Town Hall Matthew White Kettering administration met with students in a town hall meeting on 8th Tuesday, discussing current measures and taking student questions. Ms. Karen Full, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, discussed the current initiative for recruiting more students. Ms. Patricia Mroczek, Chief Public Relations Officer, announced a cooperation with KSG to create an intersectional newsletter. Ms. Viola Sprague, Director of Information Technology, spoke of the improvements planned for the Kettering website.

Mr. Robert Nichols, Director of Student Affairs, answered questions about coop employment.

Ms. Debroah S t e w a r t , Director of Student Life, expounded upon the new fine arts programs at Kettering. Dr. Stanley Liberty, the President of Kettering University, related the story of the fine arts programs and his hopes for an endowment to continue the programs in perpetuity. Finally, Dr. Robert Simpson, Provost, described improvements made to classrooms and lab spaces. He also made mention of the exhausted Work-Study funds, which his office will supplement to continue providing tutors for the rest of the year.

Students raised questions about safety around campus and the current parking situation.

“Promises of Freedom” at FIA Kayla Petrach Guest Contributor Looking for something fun to do around Flint? Check out the Flint Institute of Arts, which is currently featuring “Promises of Freedom” until April 17. “Promises of Freedom” is an Arthur Primas collection of various paintings and sculptures by African-American artists who were not readily accepted into the art world during their time. Most of the art reflects the daily struggles of African American life, dating back to times of slavery. I recently visited FIA myself to check out the gallery.

The form of the art in “Promises of Freedom” varies from oil and canvas paintings to marble sculptures to charcoal drawings. Overall, the collection features a great range of style and artists. There are approximately 50 different pieces of art throughout the gallery, each with its own description of the art and the artist.

Many artists have multiple pieces of artwork in the collection as well.

Art may not be for everyone, but

“Promises of Freedom” at FIA the pieces featured in “Promises of Freedom” are ones to be noted. In their own way, each piece of artwork tells a story about the oppression and pain African-Americans felt through the tough times in their lives. These stories include the pain of slavery, the fight for civil rights, the responsibilities of being a single African-American mother, the hardships of poverty, and the oppression forced upon African-Americans by whites. These everyday problems inspire many artists, who use their talents to relate these issues to the rest of the world.

A few pieces I found especially interesting at the gallery were Welfare Mom (2002) by Tafa Fiadazibe, Woman with Flowers (1961-1962) by Benny Andrews, and In My Life Time (1995-1996) by Howardina Pindell. My favorite piece was Gospel Singers (1951) by Charles White. He has many pieces of artwork in the “Promises of Freedom” gallery, but this one particularly stood out to me.

Although a description would do it no justice, I will attempt to do so. The piece included a man and woman standing next to one another with their mouths open and faces raised to the ceiling, apparently

singing inside a church with stained glass in the background. The woman is playing some sort of instrument, possibly a guitar.

It may seem simple at first, but the painting tells so much about African-American life. It reflects the importance of religion and spirituality to the African-American community, portrays the importance and dominance of African-American women, and also shows how important relationships are during trying times, whether the relationship is to a male, female or spirit.

The painting also points out the cultural similarities and differences between African-Americans and whites.

I strongly encourage anyone to check out “Promises of Freedom” and look into the lives of others and try to understand what each piece of artwork is portraying.

It was a very rewarding experience for me.

The Flint Institute of Arts typically has a different feature every month, so I also strongly encourage anyone to become a member at the Flint Institute of Arts (it’s free for college students).

Photographs: Above and at left, images from the Arthur Primas Collection on display at the Flint Institue of Arts.

5

Around Campus

Around Campus

Kettering University Greek Life

Beta Theta Pi - A-Section was formally reinstalled as a chapter on March 12 after receiving the chapter charter at the Fraternity’s 171st General Convention last summer. A reception for chapter brothers young and old was held at the Sargent Alumni Lounge to mark the occasion.

At left, undergraduates, recent alumni, and advisors pose with the reclaimed charter. Photo and caption by Ken Skeldon.

Nicholas Samassa IFC Member

The Kettering Chess Club has attended three tournaments this term. The first was the Michigan Class Championship which was during first weekend. This tournament was open to everyone in Michigan and located in downtown Lansing. The next tournament we attended was a speed chess tournament hosted by the Genesee County Chess Club. The time control was 5 minutes each, this was a nice change of pace for us. Our last tournament was the Michigan Collegiate Championship on Saturday of 9th week.

The above picture of Nick Jennings was taken at this event. Photo and caption by Zach Johnson.

The Kettering Open Source Club spent 8th Wednesday soldering and programming Arduino boards. Arduino is an open-source hardware platform.

Outside of open-source software, KOSC has been expanding into hardware, such as the Arduino and the MakerBot.

A meeting of Kettering Student Government’s Student Senate members, led by Huong Chim, KSG president.

Tyler Haberer, Tyler Adair, Zlatan Hrnic, & Justin Payne volunteer at the ΠΚΑ Blood Drive.

6

The Technician Magazine

Winter term is known as a time of reflection and learning in the Greek community as many fraternities and sororities begin their pledge/associate education programs. For the current members, it is a reminder of the values that have made Greek life popular over the ages. These ideals include the foundations of brotherhood, scholarship, service, and leadership. For the incoming new members, it is the induction into an organization that will shape the rest of their lives. Over the next several weeks, new members will be initiated into fraternities across campus and continue to be one of Kettering’s most prominent societies on campus involving more than forty percent of students and growing every year.

Reflecting on these ideas, the Interfraternity Council Executive Board takes a weekend every winter term to attend the National Inter-fraternity Council’s (NIC) national academy in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over the weekend, the board had the chance to re-examine the direction the Council is heading and develop short- and long-term goals with the help of Greek Advisor Robert Marias. Since they are the leaders of the Greek community, the IFC is working on becoming a more prominent representation of the Greek community in addition to acting as a direct liaison between Kettering and the fraternities on campus.

Photo at left courtesy of Mr. Samassa.

7

Good Beans and Good Business

Good Beans and Good Business Evan Brest Recently, The Technician had the opportunity to talk with Ken Van Wagoner, the co-owner of the local independent coffee shop, The Good Beans Café. The Café will be celebrating its eleventh year of operation this March.

Ken had worked in almost all positions in the food service industry for all his life, but his favorite was in food preparation. All along, he had wanted to open a beverage house. Back before the Café’s construction, Flint was behind the times.

Coffee houses were passé, and not prevalent in Flint.

Starting the Good Beans Café was not easy. After being turned down by at least 20 lenders, including a local business investment fund, it seemed to be a hint that such a business could not sur-

8

The Technician Magazine

vive. Lending institutions tend to finance franchises and other “stable” businesses, not uncertain and independent start-ups.

Ken spent 8 months creating a business plan, but it felt like many places simply didn’t even look at it. They were not willing to negotiate, and these responses indicated that such an endeavor could not possibly survive. If he listened to the banks, the shop probably wouldn’t have started in the first place.

Contrary to all advice from the lending institutions, Ken went ahead with his plans. He was steadfast in his belief in that if you build it, they will come, so all start-up funding and work was put together by him. They bought the building in November of 1997, and The Good Beans Café was open for business 39

months later.

The building was originally built around the turn of the 20th century and was a grocery store from its birth until 1980; it was then sold to be used as a motorcycle repair shop. From the mid-1980s until 1997, it was usually vacant. By that time, the building accumulated so much damage that nearly everything needed to be repaired or replaced. It took nearly two years to accomplish this, and 99% of the funding to do so was put forth by private sources.

A major problem with many independent start-ups is that they are highly likely to close within a year of opening.

A part of this is how the debts they accrue—mostly from start-up labor costs— begin to catch up with them. Due to the

Café never taking out any loans, there was never a problem with paying off debts. It took longer to start the business this way, but it paid off later when nothing had to be repaid.

While the building came together quite nicely, the licensing and certification was another matter indeed. The city of Flint made it very difficult to get the proper paperwork in order to start.

Knowing what he does now about the process, if they were to open another business, they wouldn’t do it in Flint.

Once the building and licensing was finished, it was time to actually sell some product. What would they use?

Experience told them to use quality products. While many places claim to use quality ingredients, few actually do use the best products available. Any product seen in the Café does have cheaper alternatives, but the choice to use a better product is what sets the Good Beans apart from its competitors.

The choice to serve coffee was accidental. Prior to opening, Ken had never had espresso, and after trying it he was unimpressed; he just didn’t know what to look for. Upon the arrival of this concern, a friend recommended Lavazza, an Italian brand well-known outside the States.

The Café is doing its part to educate the community as to what good product should taste like by teaching its audience what to look for. At that end, competition is a good thing because it leaves the consumer happy.

Since the Good Beans Café has opened, the industry has changed. There are many more passionate people in the industry

than before, and passionate people raise the bar by demanding better and better product; complacency lowers the bar, since people expect mediocrity. Lowering prices does a disservice to the consumers, usually because the inferior products cost less. Ironically, it might cost the Good Beans more to decrease the quality of their products.

Any other coffee shop could get Lavazza coffee, but it might raise their prices. The Good Beans itself has had offers from different suppliers, but all of them have been turned down in favor of retaining their current level of quality.

The salesmen from other suppliers who try some of the Good Beans’s coffee may or may not agree that it is superior, but they do see why the Good Beans will not switch.

The location of the Café itself is a bit indicative of the market. . . a hard-to-find “diamond in the rough” spread from person to person.

meets at The Good Beans, but there was once a time when more than one club met there. On a side note, A-section folks frequent the Café more often than their B-section counterparts.

One surprising thing about the Good Beans Café is that it does not advertise much; most of its fame has spread by word of mouth. Advertising is expensive, but it occasionally advertises in one of the university newspapers or other places where the target audience may see it. The Café is not interested in serving the masses, but rather in serving a smaller but more devoted market. The location of the Café itself is a bit indicative of the market to which it wishes to cater. It is intentionally out of the general downtown hub, a hard-to-find “diamond in the rough” spread from person to person.

The Good Beans Café is located at 328 North Grand Traverse, just a couple blocks from campus.

Photo (opposite page) of owner Ken Van Wagoner behind the counter at The Good Beans Café.

Since the Café’s opening, the flow of student customers has stayed at a steady trickle. While it is present, it’s still not what was expected. Ken used to say at any given time that there needed to be five times as many people there. Nowadays, he’s up to about the “three times as many people” mark. Currently, only Allies

9

The Kettering A-section Delts were just one of many groups who signed up to benefit Michigan Special Olympics at the Polar Bear Plunge. Tony Forlini, the chapter’s philanthropy chair, found the event in early January and immediately began getting other members involved.

Photograph and caption courtesy of Andrew Sullivan.

Above: Student Tony Taylor throws a snowball during the first of Kettering’s two snow days in Winter 2011.

Ar right: Students pose with the snow-covered Bulldog.

Above: FIRST robotics at Ketttering over Long Weekend.

At right: Professor Bell reads The Technician online.

Shouldn’t you?

At left: Layout Editor Matthew White (l) and Editor-in-chief Isaac Meadows (r) stop for a photo with their favorite PR Officer, Pat Mroczek (seated).

Below: Robert Marias drips whipped cream after another pie to the face.

Each pie cost just $5 to smash into the face of students, but it cost $20 for each pie delivered to the face of the Director of Greek Life and Community Service. All money went to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Above: The Grad Fair, held 6th Thursday in the Great Court, had more than 25 graduate programs in attendance.

At left: David Tarlau, Jacob Crabill, and Margaret Walch pose with the SAE Aero Design Team’s new milling machine.

10

The Technician Magazine

11

Provost on the Future of Kettering

Provost On the Future of Kettering

Allen Hillaker The Technician recently sat down with Provost Dr. Robert Simpson to discuss his long-term goals for Kettering, active learning, and retention strategies.

Technician: Can you comment on the Technology Enhanced Active Learning Classrooms that we’re adding?

Simpson: Absolutely. When I arrived here, there had already been a request that the academic departments provide recommendations for upgrades of laboratories and equipment. As I talked to the faculty and also the Provost Council, I became convinced that at least a component of what we did to upgrade our operations was to focus on bringing more technology into the classroom. To that extent, we’ve developed nine new classrooms that have technology installed in them. Two of those classrooms are also set up for active learning with new seating that allows students to move around and work in groups. We’ve also upgraded the look of the classrooms, including carpet and blinds and new white boards, etc. The idea was to make our classrooms much more current and contemporary than they were. I think we’ve done a pretty good job, but still have a long list of classrooms that need help.

Technician: University students are the customer. Can you comment as to what you, as the provost, are doing to help with or ensure student satisfaction and retention?

12

The Technician Magazine

Provost Robert Simpson, pictured above, joined Kettering University as provost in September of last year. He had previously held that position as interim provost from 2006 to 2007.

Simpson: Students are in a unique position. Yes, you are customers, but you’re not customers in the traditional sense of the word because the product we’re selling [is something] you’re going to carry with you for life. I think of how much it costs to buy a car today; that car depreciates in three to five years and you have to go buy another one, but at Kettering, I like to think first that our goal is to prepare you for a life of learning and a life of successful opportunity in whatever your chosen endeavors are. How do we ensure that? When I was here as interim provost in 2006-2007, I was amazed at the low retention rate from first year to sec-

ond year. After exploring what we might do, we hit upon the creation of what is now called “Teamwork, Leadership, and Success,” which is handled out of Academic Support Services. That bridge into the university has resulted in between a five and ten percent increase in retention in first year to second year (depending on the year). We need to pay much, much more attention to how we provide the transition into Kettering University. One important component is our “Leadership, Teamwork, and Success” class. I’m not satisfied with that.

I think that we, over the next two or three years, need to look at everything we do in

the first year, including our introductory engineering courses. The second thing we do—and it’s particularly important for first-year students, but it’s also important beyond that—is we’ve worked very hard through the center of Academic Support to enhance our tutoring, particularly on key courses, such as math courses. We’re looking at expanding that to a set of key first-level engineering courses that we know from history at least some students struggle in. The idea is that we provide peer tutors and, in some cases, work with our faculty for supplemental instruction so that we can ensure that particularly our mathematics and our first-level courses, whether they’re in engineering or in the sciences, are mastered appropriately so that all students can move on into other areas of study. We’re looking right now at how we make sure we don’t just deal with the student when they come in, but what we do in the first two years, so that’ll be a component of it.

The second component of our retention strategy early on is going to be revisiting how we go about providing advising to students. In some departments and disciplines, advising is ongoing, term after term after term, and in other departments and disciplines, you may get advised your first term and you may not see an advisor again until you’re ready to graduate. We believe that we need to build relationships and maintain connections, so that you guys, the “customers,” get the best support structure possible, and the best advice and guidance possible. That’s on the front end, freshmensophomore.

The other area we’re focusing on—and it’s an interesting retention area—is that we have a fair number of students who get within a few credits of graduation

and, for whatever reason, don’t finish out the course of study. In some cases, it’s because they’ve gotten a job and the job takes precedent and they sort of forget about completing their studies. We want to, in one way or another, pull those students back in and help them complete their degrees. The other area that’s been a point of stress, at least for the last couple or three years, is the senior thesis. [It was] particularly difficult…with the downturn in the economy a couple of years ago, where students in fact didn’t even have co-op partners to go to. So…right now, I’m just about to establish a committee to revisit the senior thesis and look at what kinds of options might be appropriate to [replace] the traditional thesis that is done at Kettering. We already do a research thesis in some areas, but we’re also looking at two or three other options that might be appropriate, and we’ll have to wait and see what those are, but it’s very much on my radar. My goal there is to facilitate students completing the programs of study in a timely manner and graduating. We’ve done a very good job on the front-end; our retention first year to second year is between ninety and ninety-three percent. That’s very, very good, but we’re not doing as good a job at the end-game. Our graduation rate is in the low sixties, and it really should be in the mid-seventy percent range.

Technician: Do you have additional long-term goals for Kettering?

Simpson: Absolutely. Let me just talk about a few of them. One of my longterm goals for Kettering is to really integrate entrepreneurship across the university. We have a major grant from the Kern Family Foundation to do precisely that, and I’m very excited about the progress so far. Indeed, the fresh look at se-

nior thesis is one of the outcomes of that grant, which is also training faculty and staff and helping them understand what an entrepreneurial mind set is, which means to me being more creative, more innovative, more flexible, etc. That’s longterm. This is a project that will last for at least three more years, and we hope that it will very much be embedded in the fabric of the university as a whole, which means we’re going to be more flexible, more creative, more inventive, more responsive, etc. And when I say more responsive, it’s first and foremost you guys as students, but frankly, we need to be more responsive to each other too, so it’s also in that context.

Second thing, which I’m really excited about, is that this last fall, we combined two separate activities—one was a planning council and the other was an assessment council—into a new organization called the Planning and Assessment Council (PAC). PAC is a vehicle which will help Kettering integrate planning, budgeting and assessment, so that we not only plan and link budgets to planning, but we also assess the impact of the planning activity, and we’re prepared to revise, enhance, or whatever it happens to be. PAC has representation from across the campus: right now, it has two major projects ongoing. The first of those is a solicitation for projects that focus on three primary institutional goals: recruitment of students, retention of students, and enhancement of our research activity. The PAC right now is in the process of reviewing a fairly substantial number of preliminary proposals to determine which ones should be moved to the second stage. Those proposals, or at least some of them, will be linked directly into the budget process, so we’ll be planning

13

and budgeting that way.

The second thing that they’ve just completed (not publicly available yet, but it will be fairly soon) is an employee satisfaction survey, where all the faculty and staff at Kettering University have been surveyed using a nationally normed instrument around a whole suite of questions related to what they think should be the situation, and what they perceive the current situation to be. For example — and this is just an example — there’s a question on retention. What do you think the institutions efforts on retention ought to be, where you think Kettering stands?

Areas that have a substantial gap between what folks think we should be doing and what we’re perceived to be doing will be areas that we can focus on and tackle for improvement. We’ll use that instrument not every year, but on a regular basis to judge progress and movement forward, so that’s long-term activity that I’m very much excited about.

Two other long term activities, we don’t need to spend too much time on them.

The first is really looking at how we internationalize Kettering University, make it a welcoming place for students from all over the world to come and study here.

Rationale for that is two-fold: one is that Kettering has an extremely good reputation outside of this area — abroad, that is — and secondly, I believe that we have an obligation to provide a learning environment which is very reflective of the work environment that you will encounter when you graduate. In this day and age, the chances are very good that you will end up working with people that are different than you: different culture, different ethnicity, different values, and all of those sorts of things. And as we have

14

The Technician Magazine

more diversity on campus, this will very much enrich our learning environment.

The second that we’re very, very excited about, this is an initiative that the president has been working on for some period of time, is truly connecting Kettering University to our community of Flint and our region through research and development activities. The Innovation Center on Bluff Street is an example of that activity. That’s important because we want Kettering to be a part of the economic engine for this part of the country.

That’s another one which I’m really excited about. I could give you a whole list more, but that gives you a feel for things.

Technician: Do you see yourself as a long-term player on campus?

Simpson: I don’t know exactly what you mean by long-term. I am committed to being at Kettering through a presidential transition, as is often the case in higher education or any work environment for that matter. Depending on the views of the incoming president, and the compatibility that we feel for each other, I may stay well beyond the transition, but under any circumstances I’m committed to being here through the transition as a way to ensure orderly leadership within academic affairs.

Technician: What strengths and weaknesses do you see with our current academic program?

Simpson: Weaknesses? Let me talk about the strengths first. I think that we provide a laboratory environment

which is second to none for undergraduate students. That’s regardless of area of study. What I really like is our laboratories emphasize hands-on learning. I see that as a very real strength. I see as a very real strength the commitment of everyone at Kettering, the faculty and the staff, to student success. I see that as a very, very important component of what we’re doing. One of the things that I’m very pleased is beginning to occur is that we’re breaking down the silos associated with different departments and the silos associated with different divisions of this campus. For example, our Enrollment Services folks are working very closely with our academic folks. Our co-op managers are working very closely with the faculty and students in their respective departments and disciplines, so we’re beginning to build a spirit of collabora-

tion that will permeate the campus. The last of the strengths, both academic and non-academic, is you guys, the students.

You are smart, you are articulate, and you’re much more worldly than students in most institutions. What I particularly like is that you are not bashful about raising important issues. And then, importantly, you’re not bashful about helping us define solutions. Those are sort of on the positive side.

Negative side: I think we have a long way to go to create an active learning environment in all of our classes where the faculty are not just talking to you, but are working side-by-side with you to learn. I think we do a terrific job in some settings, and I think in other settings, we really, really need improvement there.

A second one is that we need much better integration of our academic programming and our cooperative education programming. We need to be much clearer in terms of how one relates to the other, what our goals and expectations are for both our academic programs, our co-ops, and how those expectations interrelate. I think we have a long way to go there.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that one of our challenges now is that we could certainly use more students. We’re working very diligently on that, and I am personally convinced that this year will be the year we really turn the corner and move the enrollments back to where we would like them to be. That is an institutional level effort. Faculty are engaged, staff are engaged, and many of you are engaged in that effort. It’s really nice to see that spirit of collaboration and camaraderie there.

Obviously we have challenges with senior thesis, retention is still a challenge, things like that.

Technician: What are potential solu-

tions for collaboration between co-ops, academics, and active learning?

Simpson: Modern pedagogy has made the transition from what I would call the “sage on the stage:” that’s the faculty member who stands up in the front and lectures to you, and you sit back there in a seat and rapidly take notes. Then the expectation is, come exam time, you regurgitate that information back to them.

That’s a little bit more than passive learning, but it’s fairly passive. Modern pedagogy says that learning is best accomplished by doing, so the classroom needs to be action-based. Now, many of our laboratories are already that way. I’m not saying everything is wrong here and I’m not saying that there, on occasion, isn’t a role for lecture—in some cases, there definitely is a role for it—but the engagement of the students on an ongoing basis within the class: in some cases, by stopping you and having you wrestle with or solving a problem; in other cases, by simply stopping and asking a set of questions or to get you to discuss something so that all the responsibility for the dispensing of knowledge doesn’t sit up front with the faculty member. All the responsibility for absorbing the knowledge doesn’t sit [with] you guys, the students, but it’s much more an interactive and two-way street. You all come with a surprisingly robust reservoir of knowledge and understanding too. That’s really one of the things I’d like to achieve with the integration of our classroom and co-op. The question is, “How do we take advantage of all that you learn when you’re out on your co-op, and how does that enrich and inform what happens in the classroom?”

I know it does in some cases--I’m not saying it doesn’t occur — but we don’t do it in a thoughtful and deliberate manner.

Provost Provost Simpson On the OnFuture the Future of Kettering of Kettering Technician: The outside of BJ’s lounge just got renovated. Were you behind that?

Simpson: The Wellness Center area?

Technician: The Wellness Center area, the commuter lounge...

Simpson: I’m behind some of it, not all of it. We’re behind the Wellness Center.

We’re behind the new carpet in the Student Life area up on the third floor.

We’re behind the new classroom construction for Chemistry/Biochemistry.

We’re behind a lot of the new instrumentation in the Chemical Engineering laboratories, and we’re behind the new instrumentation in the ergonomics laboratory, and I could go on and on. So yes, what we tried to do was to say, “Where can we make the most difference?” and in a variety of laboratory settings, we simply were working with outmoded, outdated equipment, or simply didn’t have the appropriate equipment to do proper experiments. Between central allocations and allocations from the departments, by the time we’re done, we’ll have spent around $700 to modernize laboratories and classrooms in this academic year.

Technician: Any specific comments or statements you want to make toward the Kettering Community as a whole?

Simpson: I am very excited to be here; I think Kettering is a terrific institution.

I was impressed when I was here on an interim basis several years ago, and I am even more impressed today with [the] quality of our students and the dedication of our faculty and staff to helping students be successful. My role in that is to provide a supportive environment for learning to take place. If I do a reasonably good job, that means you’ll be successful, your colleagues will be successful, and we’ll be a better place for it.

15

The Technician Staff

Isaac Meadows is the outgoing Editorin-chief of The Technician. He hopes to get more sleep in his next, final term at Kettering.

Allen Hillaker didn’t anticipate becoming involved in The Technician when he arrived at Kettering, but the eic was very convincing. Allen’s been working with the newspaper for two years, doing everything from putting the stories on the page to managing staff to frank interviews with members of Kettering’s faculty and staff.

contributor and as an assistant editor.

It has been her sad duty to spend every Tuesday night rounding up the most recent news stories for The µTechnician with the help of her trusty team of minions other editors, especially Matt, Ryan, Tyler, and Isaac, without whom she would be lost in her own fantasies of superiority and a world of equal rights. She thanks these gentlemen for the countless hours of mutual harassment and careful editing.

Matthew White is the antithesis of a Philistine. As Layout Editor, he ensures that all is good and cultured in a school of engineers. In his down time, he does layout for The Technician. In his spare time, he interviews the Board of Trustees for The Technician. If anyone has found his life, a reward is being offered.

The Technician Staff

he isn’t questing in search of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors to vanquish, he can be found enjoying most things pretty much anywhere.

Ryan Brown is The Technician’s Distribution editor. When he’s not optimizing the newspaper’s distribution around campus, he enjoys computers, photography, and the occasional video game.

Robert Hayes has been The Technician’s automotive columnist and Online Editor; he is the EIC-Elect for 2011-2012.

Though most of his time is spent fantasizing over small hatchbacks and pop-up head lamps, Robert manages to divide the remainder of his time between The Technician and his Mechanical Engineering studies.

Matthew Holland occasionally finds a good picture, so The Technician publishes it.

Marian Swagler will fight you.

Christina Cutler has been involved in The Technician for a year and a half as a

16

The Technician Magazine

Tyler Van Eck is The Technician’s Copy Editor, who has recently achieved mastery in the art of stealth by abandoning his once-omnipresent hat. When

Evan Brest is The Technician’s entertainment columnist. When he’s not eating pizza at The Technician’s weekly meetings, he’s wandering Kettering’s campus, coffee in hand, looking for new clubs with free food or evaluating bathroom cleanliness.

John Oliver (not pictured) joined The Technician early in the Winter 2011 term and has followed various stories, reporting on jobs and Kettering Student Government.

Devin Aryan says “Blah Blah Blah.... something profound...blah blah blah...”

Korrine Ketchum is a crazy Chemical Engineer and Technician staff writer.

Dominic Jandrain is a quiet person from Nebraska. Enjoys happy hardcore techno, webcomics, raving, making stuff, and the occasional video game. He’s a pretty cool guy. He writes articles and doesn’t afraid of anything.

Tony Taylor: Male. Omnivorous.

Housebroken. Sophomore II. Cool dude. Trained by Gandhi in the art of ninjutsu, tap dancing and underwater basket weaving.

Dr. David L. Marshall is an intellectual historian of early modern and modern Europe. He received a PhD in History from the Johns Hopkins University in 2006. His first book...was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010.

His second book project has the working title “Weimar Republicanism: Rhetorical Inquiry in Germany, 1918-1933,” for which he has recently been awarded a two-year Humboldt Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers.

Betsy Homsher is the Dean of Students and The Technician’s staff advisor. She provides input to keep the paper as an organization running effectively.

17

A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief Elect

The Daily Bulldog

A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief Elect

Editor-in-Chief Steps Down Over Unlabeled Graphs

By Tyler Van Eck Investigative Journalist

60

Juniors and Seniors only, 13

Unemployment by Major 57

At The Technician, we are dedicated to expanding knowledge across both

57

our campus and the community, entertaining students, facilitating the spread

50

40

of opinions throughout the Kettering community, and most critically, raising

40

in-chief Isaac Meadows resigned

Freshman and Sophmores only, 10

today amidst a barrage of criti-

the power of the student voice. Over the past two years, I have been excited

30

30

No Class Standing Requirment, 67

to participate in this endeavor, initially as the automotive columnist and pres-

19

20

17

19

20

12

17

11

ently as Online Editor. The Technician has grown dramatically in the past two

10

10

graphs, published in the latest tabloid edition of The Technician.

60

50

Flint,mi—Technician Editor-

cism over improperly formatted

Unemployment by Major

Jobs Available by Class Standing Requirement

8

12

6

11

10

10

3

3

2

8 0

1

1

6 Mechanical Engineering

Computer Engineering

Computer Science

Applied Physics

Electrical Engineering

Computer Science

Applied Physics

Chemical Industrial Engineering 3 Engineering 3

BBA

Biochemistry

2

BS BA

These graphs are examples of those that have caused such outrage among mathematicians, statisticians, and, oddly enough, astronomers. These malformed creatures are an embarrassment to journalists everywhere. The Daily Bulldog sincerely apologizes for any confusion.

1

Engineering Applied Math Business Physics Management

1

1

1

Chemistry

Undecided Engineering

0

The graphs, which consist of a pie chart and a bar graph portraying Kettering’s most recent unemployment numbers by major, demonstrated a poor understanding of proper formatting; axis

Mechanical Engineering

Computer Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Industrial Engineering

BBA

Biochemistry

BS BA

Engineering Applied Math Business Physics Management

Kettering Sadie Hawkins Dance a Marginal Success

labels were neglected, pie-based By Evan Brest Technician Writer statistics were not properly repThis term, Kettering held its first Saresented, etc. “This is madness!” die Hawkins dance. Early reports indiexclaimed Emmanuel Gottfried, cate that as many as 7 girls attended. Inprofessor of mathematics at the terviews suggest that a slim minority of University of Washington and female students couldn’t find acceptable one outraged citizen of many dates, and a majority suspected that the across the contiguous United event was in fact “a joke.”

States. “The very concept of makAll 14 people in attendance commenting sense of such sloppy statistics ed to the effect that they had is simply staggering!” a good time, with at least Mr. Robert Hayes has since half of them commenting taken up the position of the eic that they were “grateful” for in the stead of Mr. Meadows, who the opportunity to attend. is believed to be currently hiding

From Wikipedia: In the United States, the Sadie Hawkins Dance is usually a less formal dance sponsored by a high school, middle school or college, in which female students invite male students. This is contrary to the usual custom of male students inviting females to school dances such as Prom in the spring and Homecoming in the fall.

years under Isaac Meadows’s leadership, regularly expanding content offerings 1

1

Chemistry

Undecided Engineering

as well as enhancing the paper through the new layout introduced last year.

Mr. Meadows’s guidance was a valuable asset to this paper, and he will surely be missed.

As The Technician moves forward, it is my hope that we will continue to see increases in student contributions from the Kettering campus as well as from the Flint community. We are working to expand The Technician’s voice beyond these walls through local distribution and online media. Beginning this summer, The Technician will be available at the Good Beans Café, with more community distribution points to follow. Our online presence is being revamped as well, with both a new web site and exciting new online-exclusive content coming soon. We will continue student outreach events, such as The Technician’s Student Forum and our end-of-term “Techno with The Technician” rave. The Technician is poised to grow into Kettering’s preeminent news source and I am deeply honored to be a part of The Technician’s future.

Thank you.

Robert Hayes Editor-in-chief Elect

out in a Belarusian cave and un- At right: A short dance lesson at the Sadie Hawkins Dance available for comment. event.

Photo by Matt Holland.

18

The Technician Magazine

19

Kettering University 1700 W University Ave.

Flint, MI 48504