Ergonomics Workshop for Computer Users in the Office Setting

New WSC Events Calendar and Submission Form

Upcoming LASC Workshops

Blood Drive on Monday, November 17

Faculty & Staff Yearbook Portraits

College Phone Directory for Review

WSC IN THE NEWS

WSC e-news General Info

NOTEWORTHY

Corey Dolgon gave the presidential address for the Association for Humanist Sociology's annual meeting held in Boston from November 6-9. Professor Dolgon's address, From Prison Walls to Palace Gates: A Public Sociology to Fan the Flames of Discontent, acknowledged the growing field of public sociology and the burgeoning desire for scholars, writers and teachers to be more involved with "the public sphere" outside of academic journals and classrooms. He cautioned that such an engagement could easily reinforce the alienation, hierarchy and disempowerment of the public if such endeavors only improved teaching and research without making a real impact on improving the communities around campus. As president, Professor Dolgon also hosted the event which included papers from other Worcester State College faculty including: Matthew Johnsen and Fortunata Makene of Sociology, Tonia Hagne of History, Jeffrey Cohen of Criminal Justice and Guillermina Elissondo of Spanish. The event was co-sponsored by the Departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and the Centers for the Study of Human Rights and Service Learning and Civic Engagement as well as generous support from the President's Office hosting the AHS President's reception.

Henry Theriault (Philosophy) presented remarks as part of the Genocide, Then and Now" panel on November 6, at the town hall in Bedford, Mass.  The program was organized by the Violence Prevention Coalition of Bedford.

Mark Wagner's (IELI) review of Susan Edward Richmond's poem Purgatory Chasm has been published in The Worcester Review. Mark has also recently completed a brief biography of Grafton poet Frank O'Hara for a guidebook of literary sites in Worcester.

Barbara Zang (Communication) presented a paper, "The Power of Words: A Breast Cancer Narrative," at a Medical Humanities Symposium, "Cancer Stories: The impact of narrative on a modern malady," November 7, in Indianapolis. The symposium included leading scholars in illness narrative, physicians, nurses, patients, artists and advocates who explored how the making and dissemination of narrative have changed collective knowledge of the disease. The three-day symposium was part of a series of events celebrating the opening of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center on the campus of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

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RESEARCH

Cultural Variations in College Students Understanding of the Nature and Purposes of Marriage
Barbara Zang, Ph.D.

Any discussion of marriage is obviously bound by culture.

As she examines data from a small, cross-cultural study she conducted with a psychologist at the University of Delhi, Bonnie Kanner (Psychology) may be getting close to understanding some of the different meanings of marriage.

We looked at college students expectations of marriage, Kanner said. The responses to our Likert scale survey, and students written responses to a half dozen questions, have helped us understand the complexity of the marriage relationship.

Students in the United States responded that they strongly agreed that the individual person picks a spouse. It is a personal decision. Marriage, to them, will be the central relationship in their lives.

The married couple makes the important decisions in their lives together---they decide where to live, whether to rent or buy, whether to have children and how many, Kanner said.

When that marriage relationship falls apart, everything else within the nuclear family falls apart, she added.

In India, which is the worlds largest democracy and the second most populous nation on the planet, marriage is not the central relationship in peoples lives, she said.

Other relationships, such as those between mother and child, father and child, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, and father and grandfather are much more important, Kanner said. The marriage relationship is required to keep the family going, to provide generational help and support.

Thus, picking a spouse is not a young Indian persons responsibility. Its too important a decision to leave to the inexperienced.

The care of older generations as well as the job of raising the younger generation rests upon the marriage arrangement, she said. Parents know what works best, even for their young adult children. Why leave such an important decision whom to marry--- to young people?

Thus, in India, families are responsible for finding suitable marriage partners for their children. The idea of personal, individual choice in a marriage partner is a foreign concept.

 The love marriage, in which young people select their own spouses out of love, does exist in contemporary India.

But the meaning of love marriage is I love you and my parents approve of you, Kanner said.

The idea of marrying someone selected by ones parents is an equally foreign idea to U.S. college students. They reported that selecting a marriage partner was the single most important decision they expected to make in their lives. Love will be the centerpiece of what they say will be the most intimate relationship in their lives.

Not so in India. One of my colleagues in India told me that husbands and wives do not necessarily believe that the most intimate relationship they'll have is with their marriage partner, Kanner said. Women's most intimate relationships often are among sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers and female cousins.

The woman told Kanner that what she expected from a husband was a familiar face on the other pillow---a good father, a good provider and a man good to his parents. That is enough, the woman told her.

Divorce rates in India are lower than those in the United States because marriage is not the primary relationship, Kanner said.

Her 2007-2008 mini-grant, Cultural Variations in College Students Understanding of the Nature and Purposes of Marriage, was to be used to present these study findings at an international conference.

Two independent study students have culled the data for research papers under Kanners supervision. She is now analyzing the entire data set to prepare a paper for presentation at such a conference.

The data set has raised another dimension on the independence-dependence scale for her.

What about interdependence? Kanner asked. Indians have a completely different view of family relationships than we do. Their approach is worth serious thought---and more study.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

ERGONOMICS WORKSHOP FOR COMPUTER USERS

Two WSC Occupational Therapy graduate students, Deborah Szala-Cicchetti and Jen Bayreuther, will be offering a lunch time workshop on Ergonomics in an Office Setting on Friday, November 14 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Student Center North/South Auditorium. The workshop is designed to provide information and awareness to those employees who spend most of the work day sitting at a desk and using a computer.

 

The workshop is free and open to all employees on campus. 

 

There will be an opportunity to request an individual work station analysis at the end of the workshop.

 

To reserve a seat, please RSVP to Carol Faron in HR at ext. 8666, no later than Wednesday, November 12.

 

These students are working under the direction and supervision of Professor Catherine McNeil.

 

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NEW WSC EVENTS CALENDAR AND SUBMISSION FORM
The Office of Public Relations and Marketing has launched a new online events calendar for the college at www.worcester.edu/calendar.

The new online calendar system will highlight all WSC related events taking place on and off campus that are open to the public and to the WSC community, including all athletic games and the academic calendar.

The calendar has many user friendly tools including print capabilities, forwarding to colleagues and friends, daily emails, RSS feed, text messaging, and the ability to add any event to your Outlook calendar or personal email calendars such as MSN, Google, Yahoo and others.

Another great feature of the calendar system is an online calendar event submission form. Anyone on campus who would like to have their event on the calendar and featured in the WSC e-news calendar must fill out this form. The submission form is live and ready to use. Please note that the Office of Public and Relations will no longer accept email requests or event flyers to post your event. Please use this easy form and your event will be sent to the calendar moderator for approval. The event submission form can be found at www.worcester.edu/calendarform

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UPCOMING LASC WORKSHOPS

MAC:  Math Across the Curriculum
Wednesday, November 19, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
South Auditorium, Student Center
Workshop Leader:  Mary Fowler, Department of Mathematics

Faculty Participants:  Steve Corey from Urban Studies,  Eihab Jaber from Chemistry and Elizabeth (Lisa) Wark from Business Admin/Economics.

If you have a specific LASC related topic(s) you would like addressed or are interested in leading or co-leading a workshop on a specific LASC area, please contact Bonnie Orcutt at borcutt@worcester.edu or extension 8750.

LASC Team Site:

LASC documents and other LASC related information will be available at www.worcester.edu/teamsites/LASC/default.aspx.

LASC WALK-IN SUPPORT SESSIONS FOR COURSE APPROVAL
The Center for Teaching and Learning and LASC are sponsoring a series of Walk-in Support Sessions for LASC Course Approval. All of the walk-in support sessions will take place in the Center for Teaching and Learning - Sullivan - Room117. To see a full schedule of the sessions click here.



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BLOOD DRIVE ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17
The American Red Cross will be on campus from 10 a.m. - 4p.m. on Monday, November 17, in the Student Center Exhibit Area for a blood drive. We all expect blood to be there for us, but barely a fraction of those who can give do. Yet sooner or later, most of us will face a time of great vulnerability in which we will need blood. And that time is all too often unexpected. Please consider yourself asked.

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FACULTY AND STAFF YEARBOOK PORTRAITS
McGrath Studios will be on campus on Thursday, November 13 and Friday, November 14 to take portraits for the yearbook from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. in room 204 of the Student Center. There is no sitting fee for faculty and staff. If you've never had your portrait done or would like an updated photo for the yearbook, now is the time. Whether you have a portrait done by McGrath or by Campus Photographer Erika Sidor, all portraits will be on file with Erika and the most recent will be used for the yearbook.


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COLLEGE PHONE DIRECTORY FOR REVIEW
At this url is the latest College Phone Directory www.worcester.edu/testphonebook

Please review the directory and let Carol Faron in Human Resources know of any changes by Friday, November 14.

Carol can be contacted at 508-929-8666 or carol.faron@worcester.edu. Please note this url is for review only and will no longer be available after the 14th.

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WSC IN THE NEWS
 
**Please Note - Links to online newspaper articles may no
longer be available after a certain period of time.**

Nursing nursing
Telegram & Gazette (11/10/08)
Excerpt: Among the institutions taking a lead in addressing the shortage is Worcester State College, which is updating and strengthening its respected nurse-training ...

College Town
Telegram & Gazette (11/9/08)
Excerpt: Students such as Worcester State College senior Emily Dennstedt, 21, who were seen wearing handmade T-shirts painted with the statement Barack My World, ...