The University of Toledo

Denizet-Lewis

What does it mean to be gay in America?

Gay culture expert Benoit Denizet-Lewis will answer this question in his lecture Wednesday, April 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Doermann Theater on UT’s Main Campus.

Denizet-Lewis’ talk, “What Does It Mean to Be Gay, Anyway? Young Americans Playing by New Rules,” will cover how young Americans are redefining what it means to be gay by living their lives without the shame and psychological distress common to previous generations of gays.

Anthony Kapp, project manager of the UT Office of Dean of Students, said, “I hope the lecture will spark discussion and encourage more open communication within the UT community about issues important to our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, faculty and staff.”

Denizet-Lewis is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, covering stories about youth culture, addiction, and sex and sexuality. He is also the author of the 2009 book, America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life. He has received the Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

This free, public event is sponsored by the Office of LGBT Initiatives, Spectrum, Campus Activities and Programming, and Leadership UT.

For more information, contact Kapp at anthony.kapp@utoledo.edu.

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The University of Toledo’s team of physicians, clinical PhDs, dentists, residents and fellows will be celebrated during a thank-you event Tuesday, March 31, in the Skyview Food Court Faculty Lounge.

The event is part of the national recognition of Doctor’s Day, a celebration first observed in 1933 in Barrow County, Georgia, to commemorate the date that Dr. Crawford W. Long administered the first ether anesthetic for surgery March 30, 1842. Former President George H. Bush signed legislation in 1991 making Doctor’s Day a national observance to recognize contributions physicians make to the health and well-being of people around the world.

Medical staff members will be served a free lunch Tuesday, March 31, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Skyview Food Court Faculty Lounge. Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, provost, executive vice president for health affairs and College of Medicine dean, will give remarks at the event.

People are asked to send RSVPs to the Referral Resource Center at 419.383.4444 or send an e-mail to monica.stack@utoledo.edu.

UT medical students enrolled in Family Caregiving in Dementia will share their experiences Monday, March 30, from noon to 1 p.m. in Health Education Building Room 105 on Health Science Campus.

This class was started four years ago by Carole Young, director of the Academic Test Center on Health Science Campus, after her husband died from Alzheimer’s disease.

Young felt it was important to increase students’ knowledge about the progression of dementia and its health effects on caregivers after her health deteriorated while caring for her husband.

“Caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients have the highest suicide rate of all caregivers, so it’s important to be aware of their health issues,” Young said.

During this course, students are paired with family caregivers who act as the students’ mentors by helping them better understand the challenges caregivers face.

The students will talk about what they learned, from the patient/caregiver relationship to the diagnosis process.

In addition, a mentor will be present to share how the course has impacted her life.

For more information on this free, public event, call Young at 419.383.6566.

Lares

The University of Toledo’s 36th Annual Latino Student Union Scholarship Dance will feature Shelly Lares, the Azteca Show and DJ Mi Gente. The event will take place Saturday, March 28, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Toledo Civic Theatre, 237 S. Erie St.

Lares, also known as “Little Miss Dynamite,” is the winner of eight Tejano Music Awards, including 2005 Female Vocalist and Female Entertainer of the Year.

“This event is very special because everybody comes together for the cause and for the betterment of Latino students, ” said Sabina Elizondo-Serratos, director of the UT Office of Latino Initiatives.

“This event is put together by the Latino Student Union and continues to be a respected program,” she added. “I enjoy watching the students grow through the planning of this event; they get so excited.”

Tickets are $15 in advance from the Latino Student Union Office in Student Union Room 3513 on Main Campus and $20 at the door.

All of the proceeds will benefit the Latinos del Futuro Scholarship Fund and the Unidos y Diversos Scholarship Fund.

For tickets or more information, call the Latino Student Union at 419.530.4326 or Elizondo-Serratos at 419.530.2992.

Looking through the window of history is a reminder of how fragile human existence can be. From the evolution of man to the disappearance of mass cultures, archaeologists provide valuable insights to the past through research and by gathering artifacts.

Archaeology enthusiasts and professionals will gather Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the Archaeology of Prehistoric Native Americans in the Western Lake Erie Region Conference in Memorial Field House Room 2100 on The University of Toledo Main Campus.

The conference will feature six presentations by amateur and professional archaeologists from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Ontario. Each presentation will focus on a specific topic related to Native-American culture and events in the Western Lake Erie Region from 1000 B.C. to 1800 A.D.

“Studying the archaeology and the culture of Native Americans provides us with perspective on our own culture and how viable it is,” said Glen Boatman, UT student and research assistant in archaeology.

Nine tables of artifacts, including reproductions of pieces from the Danbury site in Ottawa County, and photographs of excavations from multiple sites will be on display to represent the archeological findings across the Midwest.

The free, public conference is sponsored by the UT Anthropological Society and the UT Department of Sociology and Anthropology, as well as several area organizations.

For more information on this event, click here or contact Megan Gorby at 740.244.4635.

In an effort to help make the world green, the UT community is encouraged to participate in Earth Hour, which will take place Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 p.m.

By turning off lights for that hour — Earth Hour — you are casting a vote for action on climate change.

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 and has grown to a world event. In 2008, global landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco went dark.

The goal for 2009 is to try and get one billion people to participate and vote for a greener environment. The results will be presented to world leaders at the global climate change conference and will help establish official government policies regarding global warming.

For more information or to get involved, go to www.earthhour.org.

Walk into the atrium of the Center for Creative Education on UT’s Health Science Campus, and you can pay homage to physicians, organizations and others who have devoted themselves to advancing the health and well-being of people around the world.

On a wall are plaques with engraved names and portraits of 21 members of The University of Toledo College of Medicine’s Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

Three more — the sixth class of honorees — will be inducted Saturday, March 28.

Drs. Jeffery E. Heck, John P. Howe and Bruce C. Steffes will be honored during a program in the Center for Creative Education atrium from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Hussain

Also to be recognized that evening will be Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, who will receive the Lawrence V. Conway Lifetime Distinguished Service Award.

Conway, of Toledo, founded the Medical Mission Hall of Fame in 2004 to honor those individuals and/or organizations that have made significant and substantial contributions to advancing the medical well-being of people throughout the world. The Medical Mission Hall of Fame became an affiliate of UT’s College of Medicine in 2006 and its permanent home was established in the Center for Creative Education.

A 1979 graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Heck, of Asheville, N.C., founded Shoulder to Shoulder, which is dedicated to improving the lives of people living in poor countries through the delivery of health care, nutrition and education. Heck is the first graduate of The University of Toledo/Medical College of Ohio to be inducted into the Medical Mission Hall of Fame.

Howe is president and chief executive officer of Project HOPE, the health education and humanitarian organization that for more than 50 years has provided care to developing nations. He is a world leader in the biosciences and in developing solutions to multinational health concerns. Project HOPE is based in Millwood, Va.

A surgeon and educator, the Fayetteville, N.C.-based Steffes serves as chief executive officer of the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons. His organization uses rural mission hospitals, volunteer surgeons and missionaries to teach the best practices of surgery.

Hussain, of Maumee, is being honored for his career as a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon in the Toledo area and as a volunteer medical teacher for more than 30 years throughout the world. He holds an emeritus professorship in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in the UT College of Medicine and is a member of the UT Board of Trustees.

All of the awardees will be in attendance.

The four physicians also will speak at the 11th annual Health-Care Missions Symposium, “Medical Education Across the Nations,” that will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Health Education Building Room 110 on Health Science Campus.

For more information, contact Dan Saevig, UT associate vice president of alumni relations, at 419.530.4008.

The challenges of global medical education and health will be in the spotlight at a symposium, “Health Care and Its Reform in Governments in Transition: Global, National and Local,” that will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 27, in the Faculty Club in the Hilton Toledo on Health Science Campus.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, Health Science Campus provost, executive vice president for health affairs, and College of Medicine dean, will moderate.

“We have put together a distinguished group of speakers for this event,” Gold said. “Our goal is to stimulate thinking about global medical education and health policy issues.”

The program, which is sponsored by The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Students for Medical Missions, is being held in observance of National Public Health Week.

The speakers and their topics will be:
• Dr. Kristopher Brickman, UT associate professor of surgery, Emergency Department medical director and director of the Office Global Medical Education, “Some Opportunities and Challenges in Global Medical Education”;

• Dr. Glenn Geelhoed, professor of international medical education at George Washington University Medical Center, “Some Perspectives on Reforming Health Care From Transformational Learning in International Education”;

• UT medical student William P. Schmitt, “The Value of a Global Health Curriculum From a Medical Student’s Viewpoint”;

• Dr. John Howe III, president and chief executive officer of Project Hope and former provost and president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, “The Role of Project Hope in Global Medical Education”; and

• Dr. S. Amjed Hussain, UT professor emeritus of surgery and member of the UT Board of Trustees, “Looking Forward in Reforming our Health-Care System: A Global Reform Medical Approach.”

The event is free, but space is limited.

In addition to spreading knowledge inside the classroom, many UT faculty members conduct research and make valuable contributions to their professional communities.

Dr. Abdul-Majeed Azad, UT associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering, and his research team have developed a new technology with the potential to provide green energy from greenhouse gases. NASA, among other organizations, may be interested in this technology for Mars exploration.

A team of UT faculty members and graduate students from the College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration will enter this concept in the Global Venture Challenge, Wednesday through Friday, March 25-27, at the University of Tennessee.

The Global Venture Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program, is an educational competition designed to stimulate entrepreneurial spirit in students and launch new technology-based businesses associated with energy technologies.

A panel of energy executives, venture capitalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and legal experts will judge some 15 university teams for the chance to win $25,000.

For more information on this event, visit www.globalventurechallenge.com/index.html.

Months of discussion and data collection may have come to a close, but as the first phase of work is wrapped up discussions are under way for the next steps in the strategic assessment of the College of Arts and Sciences.

In a March 23 report to the Board of Trustees, Dr. Rosemary Haggett, Main Campus provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, outlined not only data that had been collected, but also some of the findings of what she described as a “visioning exercise” for the college.

Noting the need to delve deeper in the data, Haggett showed graphic illustrations of how UT compares to other colleges of arts and sciences in Ohio, as well as between peer universities UT aspires to compete against.

“In some areas, we compare quite well, in others we do not,” Haggett noted. “What we need to do now is to develop action plans for the areas we wish to improve upon and work hard to achieve those goals.”

According to the report titled “Identity, Vision and Strategy: A Planning Context for The University of Toledo’s College of Arts and Sciences” from the Learning Alliance, the external group UT partnered with to undertake the assessment, participants in a pair of intensive roundtable discussions essentially want the college to be recognized as an integrative hub of the University, as all undergraduate students take courses in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“All undergraduate students pass through the college at one time or another,” Haggett said. “These courses are part of their major’s curriculum. The College of Arts and Sciences can provide them an integrative learning experience. “

In distilling down the discussions from the roundtable discussions, the Learning Alliance identified five “thematic areas of focus.” These are:

• Re-conceive the definitions of scholarship, and recast the academic reward system to make possible a more balanced recognition of scholarly achievement;
• Recast the curriculum to address evolving learning needs, both in the major and in general education;

• Rethink and revise teaching modalities (including advising) to bring about more effective learning;
• Devise new approaches to the use of space; and

• Strengthen the college’s programs of graduate education.

Haggett told the board she will work with the steering committee that oversaw this process and the College of Arts and Sciences leadership and faculty to develop action plans to begin addressing the identified areas of focus. The board’s academic affairs committee will receive regular updates as work progresses.

In other action, the board approved:

• Sabbatical leave for 27 faculty members;

• The concept of converting the Scott Park Campus into an alternative energy learning hub; and

• Honorary degrees for Sam Abell, a Sylvania native who is a world-renowned photographer; Eugene Kranz, a Toledo native who was the flight director on shift when an explosion crippled Apollo 13 and helped get the crew back to Earth safely; Dr. DavidEaglesham, vice president for technology at First Solar; and Dr. Norman Johnston, chief executive officer and president of McMaster Energy Enterprises.