Category: Inside NOW

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Report ranks CU faculty salaries higher than some peer institutions
2. Presidential search gets under way
3. Clemson names new IPTAY leader
4. Clemson researcher helps discover “missing link” of black holes
5. Atelier InSite: A marriage of art and mortar
6. Clemson wins Carolinas recycling award
7. Registration open for 2013 First Friday parade
8. April Safe Tiger Mug winner named
9. PARKING/TRANSIT: Parking closures this week

1. Report ranks CU faculty salaries higher than some peer institutions

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/report-ranks-cu-faculty-salaries-higher-than-some-peer-institutions/

Clemson University’s faculty salaries outrank those at a number of its peer institutions, according to a recent report published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

Survey data indicated that the average faculty salaries for assistant, associate and full professors at Clemson University are now higher than those at Virginia Tech, the University of Georgia, University of Florida, Texas A&M, Iowa State University, and the University of South Carolina. Clemson exceeds North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Arizona State University in two of the three ranks.

Clemson developed a compensation plan as part of the 2020 Road Map goal to recruit and retain top people and bring faculty salaries in line with the market.

Each year, the AAUP compiles salary and benefits data for full-time faculty from colleges and universities across the country.

Access the report at http://www.aaup.org/report/heres-news-annual-report-economic-status-profession-2012-13,

2. Presidential search gets under way

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/presidential-search-gets-under-way/

The search committee charged with finding the 15^th president of Clemson University held its organizational meeting Monday, officially launching the process to find a successor to President Jim Barker.

David Wilkins, chairman of the Board of Trustees, charged the committee with the following: The hiring of a President for the University is the most important job the Board of Trustees will undertake. This Search Committee is charged to be deliberate, be thorough, be inclusive, seek input from all core Clemson constituent groups as faculty, staff, students and alumni, and to proceed with a purpose. Please recommend to the full Board no more than five, but not less than three, top quality candidates for their consideration. These candidates should be forwarded to the Board in an unranked manner as it will be the full Board’s responsibility to hire Clemson’s next president.

In a related action after the meeting, Wilkins appointed Faculty Senate President Kelly Smith to the committee as an ex-officio member.

“We welcome the addition of Dr. Smith as a member of the search committee and believe the action taken by Chairman Wilkins recognizes the unique role of the faculty in university governance,” said search committee chair Smyth McKissick. “We look forward to working with Dr. Smith and feel he will bring great value to the deliberations. While other groups will not be directly represented on the committee, processes to engage other Clemson constituents, including students, staff and alumni, are being developed.”

Clemson names new IPTAY leader

http://www.clemsontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=28500&ATCLID=207402260

One of the nation’s oldest and most successful athletic booster organizations has a new leader. Clemson University and IPTAY have named Davis C. Babb, associate athletics director for development and associate vice chancellor for university advancement at Texas Christian University, to be the new chief executive officer of IPTAY.

Since 1999, under Babb’s leadership, TCU has raised more than $250 million in gifts and commitments for 25 new and renovated athletics facilities, endowed and annual scholarships and special projects. With Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Chris Del Conte and Head Football Coach Gary Patterson, he led the athletics department’s campaign to secure more than $143 million to renovate the university’s football stadium – the largest fund-raising project in TCU history.

“I want to thank President Barker, IPTAY Board President Charles Dalton, Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich and the search committee for offering me this opportunity to join the IPTAY and Clemson community,” Babb said. “IPTAY has been at the forefront of intercollegiate athletic fund-raising for many years, and I look forward to joining the team of dedicated professionals to continue to raise the needed support for scholarships, academic services, facility improvements and other athletic department initiatives.”

Charles Dalton, president of the IPTAY Board of Directors, said, “After a national search we are thrilled to name Babb as IPTAY’s new CEO.  His success raising funds for capital projects was particularly attractive to us, but he also demonstrated an understanding of IPTAY’s longstanding success with annual giving.  I was equally impressed with his professional approach to building and managing a strong team. That combination of fundraising focus and leadership capability will take Clemson athletics to the next level of competitiveness.”

Babb previously served TCU as associate athletic director for external affairs and interim athletics director – positions that involved projects to increase corporate revenue and ticket sales, serving as liaison to the alumni association, and supervising media relations, marketing and promotions.

Prior to coming to TCU he was athletics director at the Virginia Military Institute and previously coached the Furman University women’s tennis team for two years.

“I am excited about Davis Babb bringing his fund raising experience to IPTAY,” said Dan Radakovich, director of athletics. “A strong partnership between IPTAY and Clemson athletics is vital for our long-term success. I look forward to working with Davis in any way possible to achieve all of our goals for Clemson.”

After going through corporate restructuring this year that strengthened IPTAY’s ability to raise funds for Clemson athletics, the university and IPTAY conducted a national search that led to Babb’s selection as IPTAY’s first CEO.

Begun in 1934 to give the Clemson athletic program the support it needed, IPTAY is now one of the most successful athletic fundraising organizations. IPTAY donors provide millions of dollars in scholarships for student-athletes and non-athletes alike. It also has provided substantial support for programs and facilities that help Clemson Athletics stay competitive in collegiate sports.

Clemson researcher helps discover “missing link” of black holes

https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2013/01/14/clemson-researcher-helps-discover-%E2%80%9Cmissing-link%E2%80%9D-of-black-holes/

The discovery of a bingeing black hole that is expelling powerful beams of material has shed new light on some of the brightest X-ray sources seen in other galaxies, according to new research led by Durham University with contributions from Clemson researcher Dieter Hartmann.

Hartmann’s role in this particular project was to assist by surveying the central regions of Messier 31 with two orbiting X-ray observatories, the XMM-Newton and Chandra. His contributions to this particular paper focused on discussions of the theory of accreting black holes and the production of relativistic jets in these systems.

Using these orbiting X-ray telescopes, a large international team of astronomers watched as the X-ray emission from the black hole in our nearest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda – more than 2 million light years away – brightened and faded over the course of six months.

The study, published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, shows what happens when black holes feast rapidly on the material stripped from a companion star.

Astronomers have spent years debating whether these are black holes just a few times the mass of the Sun which are gorging themselves on gas from an orbiting star, or whether they are more massive black holes eating more sedately.

Black holes in our own Milky Way galaxy are very rarely seen to binge, but when they do, they also launch very powerful beams of material called jets, which are blasted outwards at close to the speed of light, and can be tracked using sensitive radio telescopes.

The team saw an extremely bright radio wave emission that dropped by a half in just 30 minutes. Despite the large distance to Andromeda, the absence of dust and gas in that direction allows an unhindered view of the feast, giving scientists key new insights into how jets are produced by a binging black hole.

Radio waves were discovered from the ultraluminous X-ray source, which shows that these are just normal, everyday black holes and that the region producing radio waves is extremely small in size, no further across than the distance between Jupiter and the Sun.

Atelier InSite: A marriage of art and mortar

https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/students/2013/atelier-insite-a-marriage-of-art-and-mortar/?fs

Art in itself is reflective of the depth and breadth of the human condition. Marry art with an inanimate object like a building, and it can tell its own story and set the tone for collaboration within its walls.

Such is the goal for Atelier InSite, a Creative Inquiry program that focuses on the implementation of public artwork at Clemson University. This student-driven initiative encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration and provides hands-on opportunities for students to conduct research on the nature of public art, investigate the design build process, conduct site analysis and identify site locations for artwork.

Led by Clemson professors David Detrich, Joey Manson and Denise Woodward-Detrich, this initiative got its start more than a decade ago when university funds were set aside in support of the Art Partnership Program, a collaborative effort among the Office of the President, the Department of Art and other academic units on campus. The program solicits and commissions the creation of site-specific works of art, which are permanently featured at various campus locations.

Birth of a Creative Inquiry program
Clemson’s design guidelines for current and future campus projects stipulate, “All capital development projects that are anticipated to exceed two million dollars will consider the benefits of public art and will apply 1/2 of 1 percent of the construction budget for such work.”

Last year, Detrich and his team were invited to a planning session for Clemson’s new $50 million, 100,000-square-foot life sciences facility project. The team was asked to make recommendations about the introduction of art into the facility design. As part of the pitch, the team proposed student participation by way of a Creative Inquiry class, which is Clemson’s undergraduate research program.

“We want to establish a new model for how other universities can implement art,” Detrich explained. “To encourage student participation and engagement, we recommended that the project be implemented through Creative Inquiry and that it be by students, for students.”

By students for students
In August 2012, the Atelier InSite Creative Inquiry program was approved, and Detrich and his team went to work to recruit both art and life sciences students and create a strategy focused on a central theme of research. In addition to implementing artwork for the new building, they were also given the charge to help dedicate the new life sciences facility in a unique way that reflects sciences and the arts.

Instead of a typical ribbon-cutting that marks the opening of a building, students created a sculpture of a plasmid. Used in the study of molecular biology and genetics, a plasmid is a DNA molecule that is engineered to include desired genes. In a process called transformation, the circular plasmid is introduced into a cell where change is wanted and the plasmid effective brings about that change.

“Because the life sciences facility is designed for an open exchange of research among different areas, the plasmid is a symbol of collaboration among those entities,” Detrich said.

Pairing students from diverse disciplines can be challenging. But the process of investigating and understanding unique thought can result in holistic perspectives. Detrich and his team leveraged that by creating “get-acquainted sessions” in which art students presented a “What is art?” program to their life sciences peers. In return, the life sciences students presented “What is life sciences?” to their art student counterparts.

“It was a good exercise to get the students from different academic areas working together,” Detrich said.

So that everyone was on the same page, students devised a glossary of terms that were common to both the arts and life sciences areas and wrote a mission statement and guiding principles.

The students together researched site-specific art, participated in building tours and made recommendations regarding the placement of art in the new facility. The recommendations will become actual works of art in the building and currently appear as placeholders in the form of question marks. The question marks contain images that represent a blend of art and the sciences.

The Atelier InSite Creative Inquiry program will soon focus on the Watt Family Innovation Center and the Lee III building, which recently won a national award for design achievement from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

“The hope is that students who sign up for a Creative Inquiry come back the next year,” Detrich said. “Because of the success of this interdisciplinary collaboration, every student who participated came back. They now see art as being important to their university experience. It’s a physical, tangible part of the legacy they are leaving behind. That’s what empowers them and keeps them interested.”

To learn more about Clemson University’s public art program, Atelier InSite, visit www.atelierinsite.com.

Clemson wins Carolinas recycling award

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/clemson-university-wins-carolinas-recycling-award/

Clemson University has been awarded the Outstanding Composting or Organics Recycling Program of the Carolinas by the Carolina Recycling Association (CRA).  This is the first time Clemson University’s Recycling Department has been recognized with this award.

The award is given each year to a North or South Carolina-based business, government agency, school, organization, or large scale facility that has designed and implemented a composting or organics-recycling program.

Clemson incorporated the topic of recycling into its Creative Inquiry (CI) program and offered multiple CI classes to research composting issues – everything from compost facility layout design to alternative composting formulas and a variety of curing methods.

Last year Clemson composted 35 tons of food waste from the university’s dining halls. This academic year, that number is expected to double. Clemson-produced compost is used at the campus organic gardens and at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens.

The award was presented at the CRA’s annual awards banquet on April 10.

Registration open for 2013 First Friday parade

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/registration-open-for-2013-first-friday-parade/

Be a part of one of Clemson’s oldest traditions! Registration is now open for the 2013 First Friday Parade to be held August 30. Groups or departments that are interested may participate in the parade by electing to enter a float, drive a vehicle, or walk in the parade.

The theme for this year’s parade is “Spirit of the Southland.” Inspired by Tiger Rag, the song that shakes the Southland, this year’s parade is centered on Clemson’s spirit, culture, and traditions.

Online parade registration can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHZnUnEySDlfdjZrVDZsVEEzbGtwQmc6MQ#gid=0.

For more information or questions, email Central Spirit at cufirstfriday@gmail.com.

April Safe Tiger Mug winner named

http://www.clemson.edu/administration/risk/safe-tiger.html

April winner:  Tony Penna – Associate Professor of Theatre

PARKING/TRANSIT: Parking closures this week

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/parkingtransit-parking-closures-this-week/

Parking at Brooks Center: White spaces reserved Wednesday, April 24

Wednesday, April 24, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved in the morning for Clemson University Percussion Ensemble and Steel Band, a Eskridge Tri-Art Series presentation. The performance begins at 9:30 a.m. and spaces will be released after the performance has begun. For more information, please visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/triart.php.

Upcoming events

CU at The Ball Pit  April 24-26

President’s Commission on the Status of Black Faculty and Staff Open Forum  April 26

Botanical Gardens Plant Sale  April 27

Free ACT/SAT DeMystifier Workshop  April 27

Clemson CyberInstitute Brown Bag session: Algorithmic approaches for epilepsy and autism detection  April 30

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Barker draws thanks from the Clemson family after announcing retirement, return to teaching
2. Update: SC Highway 93 pedestrian safety improvements
3. President Barker’s April 16 remarks to the Senate Finance Committee – Education Subcommittee
4. Discover Clemson Research Blog: Verbal aggression and athlete motivation; Exploring the coach and student-athlete relationship
5. Vending Committee accepting fund requests April 18-May 20
6. Call for entries for the 6th annual c u in China photography contest
7. MITS raises over $1,500 for United Way
8. Upstate Writing Project Young Writers’ camp
9. PARKING/TRANSIT: Parking lot closures this week

1. Barker draws thanks from the Clemson family after announcing retirement, return to teaching

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/barker-draws-thanks-from-the-clemson-family-after-announcing-retirement-return-to-teaching/

Faculty, staff, students and other well-wishers thanked President James Barker for his 14 years of service to the university after he announced he is retiring as president and returning to teaching.

The president shared in a livestream video message to the campus today that he will continue to lead the university until his successor is on board.

“Clemson has come a very long way under Jim Barker’s leadership, said Kelly Smith, Clemson’s Faculty Senate president. “It will be difficult to find a replacement who cares as much about Clemson and is able to bring diverse constituencies together as well as he did.”

Angela Nixon, Clemson’s staff senate president added, “President Barker has done so much to support Staff Senate during his career as president. However, I know he is looking forward to getting back into the classroom as a teacher, so I am happy that he will be able to do that. I am also excited about the possibilities the future holds for Clemson with the transition to a new president.”

Immediately after Barker’s broadcast, Clemson students, alumni, clubs and friends took to Twitter to thank Barker for his leadership and to send well wishes to the president.

Here’s a sampling of the messages:

Casey Bolt ‏@KCBolt
Well now I’m happy I decided to wear a #Clemson shirt today. Honoring Pres. Barker for his years of service to the #Tigers. #ClemsonFamily

CUSG ‏ @CUSG
Thank you, President Barker, for your many years of service! Your work on our behalf has been invaluable.

xfiftyfour ‏@x54
A #clemson tiger, always. #thankyoubarker pic.twitter.com/6hxmjRZ0oU

ATO Clemson ‏ @ATOClemson
Thank you President Barker for everything you have done for Clemson and the students! You will be missed & will always be a Clemson Man.

Clemson Young Alumni ‏ @ClemYoungAlumni
Thank you President Barker for your 14 years of service as Clemson’s 14th President! #ManOfClass #ClemsonsOwn #GoTigers

Jackie Alexander ‏ @jackiealexander
Sad to hear that President Barker is retiring. He’s been a great friend and ally to Student Media.

The university has set up a Web page for those who want to share send personal messages to Barker:  https://blogs.clemson.edu/best-wishes/dear-clemson-personal/ In just a few hours, more than 200 people have added their well wishes.

2. Update: SC Highway 93 pedestrian safety improvements

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/update-sc-highway-93-pedestrian-safety-improvements/

Construction continues along SC Highway 93 adjacent to Riggs soccer field to improve pedestrian safety. The sidewalk along SC Highway 93 between Beta Gamma Way and Williamson Road is closed. As early as April 15, additional pine trees will be removed to facilitate the pedestrian bridge installation. Motorists and pedestrians should stay clear of barricades and temporary fencing; observe construction signage and avoid this area if possible while work is in progress.

For questions related to this project, contact Tommi Jones at tommij@clemson.edu.

3. President Barker’s April 16 remarks to the Senate Finance Committee – Education Subcommittee

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/president-barker-april-16-remarks-to-the-senate-finance-committee-%E2%80%93-education-subcommittee/

Chairman Courson, Senator Matthews and Senator Verdin,

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be here today.

I bring you greetings from the faculty, students, staff and alumni of Clemson University. It is a privilege and a pleasure to represent them here today. I also want to thank you for your hospitality last week as hundreds of alumni and supporters decended on the State House for Clemson Day. We were thrilled with the turnout and the enthusiasm. It’s unusual to see that much orange in Columbia when there’s not an athletic event taking place, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

I’m pleased to let you know that the state of Clemson University is very strong.

• The university continues to be recognized as one of the nation’s best public universities – ranked #25 in terms of quality by U.S. News and World Report, and #34 among the best values in public education by Kiplinger’s. These rankings prove that it’s possible to be good and affordable.
• This kind of national recognition enhances not only the value of a Clemson degree, but also the reputation of South Carolina among industries looking for a place with a strong business climate and a capable, well-educated workforce in which to locate.
• Before I begin my formal remarks, I’d like to offer a portion of my time to our outgoing undergraduate student body president, McKee Thomason and ask that he introduce himself and offer any thoughts he would like to share.

It’s always a pleasure to meet with this subcommittee because it gives me an opportunity talk about Clemson’s achievements and how they are benefitting our students and the state.

Since we last met, Governor Haley has proposed funding higher education based on performance.  We endorse that concept and have been applying these accountability metrics for our last 10-year plan and our current 10-year plan.   We believe Clemson will be very successful in meeting these performance-based, highly accountable metrics.

First, let’s talk about graduation rates: With six-year graduation rates now surpassing 80 percent, Clemson has moved into the ranks of the most successful national universities – and #1 among public institutions in South Carolina. We’re also ranked among the nation’s top producers of African American engineers by Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine, and we were one of only 18 schools honored by the American Football Coaches Association for having graduation success rates above 90 percent for that sport.

The second metric is accessibility for in-state students and under-represented populations: Clemson is strategically and thoughtfully growing freshman and transfer undergraduate enrollment to increase access to a Clemson degree – while taking care to maintain the academic quality, course selection, campus life and engagement opportunities students and parents expect from a top-ranked university.

After another record year for applications, we enrolled our largest – and brightest — class ever, with 3,450 freshmen boasting an average SAT of 1246. We also enrolled more than 600 students in the  very successful Bridge to Clemson transfer partnership with Tri-County Technical College.

The third metric is job placement for our graduates. SmartMoney Magazine – a publication of the Wall Street Journal — has ranked Clemson number 7 on its list of 50 of the nation’s top colleges and universities whose graduates get the best return on their tuition dollars. We ranked higher than all Ivy League schools and higher than many public universities typically found at the top of national quality rankings.

We’re also providing students with relevant, hands-on work experience that makes them more marketable after graduation. Clemson ranked fourth in the nation on U.S. News & World Report’s list of the top 10 schools with the highest percentage of students who hold internships or co-op positions as an undergraduate student.  Based on data from the 2010-2011 academic year, the report shows that 67 percent of Clemson’s graduating seniors held an internship or co-op position before graduation.

The fourth metric is support for economic development:   In 2012, we commissioned a study of Clemson’s statewide economic impact last year as a part of our observance of the 150^th anniversary of the Morrill Act – which created the land-grant system of colleges and universities.  In 2010 – the most recent year of the decade studied — Clemson was responsible for nearly 25,000 jobs and $1.8 Billion in total economic output statewide.

The Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville now has 15 faculty members …  nearly 200 graduate students . . . 34 research partners … and 17 campus partners.

Two new facilities opened in 2012 — The Center for Emerging Technologies is designed to launch entrepreneurs and start-ups companies, and the new BMW-certified component testing lab, which will allow suppliers to test their products here in South Carolina versus sending those products to Munich.

Work also is progressing rapidly on development of the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston. At the core of CURI’s 27-acre research and innovation campus sits what will be the world’s most-advanced wind-turbine drivetrain testing facility. This unique testing facility will accelerate product testing to support growth of the global wind energy industry.  Let me take a moment to say thank you for funding $3 million as part of last year’s budget for the grid simulator – a very integral part of this project.

The facility, scheduled to be completed this year, will offer testing capacity three times greater than any other now operating. Virtually all of the major wind industry companies worldwide are represented on the facility’s advisory board.

This past summer the family of Anita Zucker donated $5 million to help build the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center on the CURI site – which will provide an academic anchor for the energy, restoration and conservation education and research programs.

Both CU-ICAR and CURI owe their existence to innovative funding initiatives created by the General Assembly. Your investments in endowed chairs and research university infrastructure are paying substantial dividends. When the state has invested in Clemson, we have delivered.

Our E&G funding requests will support economic development and programs that will make our graduate more competitive in the marketplace.

We respectfully request that you consider the following priorities for recurring funding:

$3 million for the Clemson University Center for Energy Systems at CURI, to fund faculty, research scientists, and graduate and undergraduate students to build a world class program in energy systems. Let’s leverage the facilities and technology already in development and make South Carolina a magnet for industries and federal agencies needing to develop, prototype, test and certify innovations for energy systems and electrical grid simulation.

$5 million for the Clemson University Center for Workforce Development to fund an expanding partnership between Clemson University, the technical colleges, Pre-K-12 partners, state and federal agencies, national research centers, and industry to develop South Carolina’s next generation workforce to support advanced manufacturing.

$2 million for Undergraduate Student Engagement programs – such as Creative Inquiry, Internships, cooperative education and undergraduate research. These programs engage students in real-world, hands-on learning and problem-solving – and they build the professional skills that ensure our students are ready for the marketplace.

I have a President’s Advisory Board – which consists of business, industry, education and community leaders.   I spoke with them about this program and their response to me was, “These programs are right on target. You just need to increase participation – by a lot.” That’s exactly what this funding will do.

Even with a #4 national ranking for internships, we need to do better. In fall 2012, we had more than 700 students apply for about 70 positions available through our university professional internship program. This is a clear and obvious case of a program that’s working and needs to be expanded. These funds will allow us to do that.

A recent national survey shows why this is so important.  The survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Marketplace said that despite high unemployment, employers are having a hard time finding qualified candidates for jobs; and that while they still value a college degree, they said recent grads often don’t have the skills they’re looking for  — such as communication, problem-solving and ability to adapt.

Their solution? More internships.

We also have two requests for one-time capital funding.

$10 million for a Freshman Engineering & Science Hall – which will establish a new home for freshmen engineering students within the Watt Family Innovation Center to help us meet the state’s growing need for engineers – which is a core responsibility as the state’s science-and technology – oriented research university. This facility will also provide exposure for freshmen to all engineering disciplines and provide academic advising and career counseling.

Over the past four years, we have increased undergraduate engineering enrollment by more than 50 percent – and we need to continue that trend in order to meet the science, engineering and technology workforce needs. Governor Haley was recently quoted as saying the first question she gets when she is recruiting high-tech industries is, “Do you have enough engineers?” We need to be sure she can answer, “Absolutely.”

Also, we request $25 million for a new facility to house and consolidate undergraduate programs in the College of Business & Behavioral Sciences Building. These programs are currently housed in Sirrine Hall, which was constructed in 1938 and has not been renovated in 35 years.  The proposed new facility would accommodate increasing enrollment, reduction in class sizes and space for programs to meet job market demands for these graduates.

While new funding for the Endowed Chairs program has not recently been considered, I want to continue to stress the importance of this program and its continued focus to provide the intellectual capital industries are looking for and that has been proven successful by CU-ICAR and CURI.

Also, we remain hopeful that if the opportunity presents itself, you will consider a capital bond bill for higher education.

I also want to conclude today by discussing a piece of legislation that Clemson has introduced, the Clemson University Enterprise Act, which is now under review by the Special Finance SubCommittee. The bill has generated some media coverage across the state recently, and I want to take a few minutes to address why this bill is so important to Clemson and to South Carolina.

This bill, if passed, give us tools that can streamline many of the time-consuming, duplicating processes we face, while maintaining full accountability to the state.

While the bill is not a budgetary request, there is a direct connection to funding because this legislation will allow us to operate more efficiently and reduce cost of many of our business operations.

The legislation would create a new division within Clemson – an enterprise division— for units that need to operate more like businesses or activities where we interact with the private sector. Examples would be CU-ICAR, athletics or student housing. It would NOT include our core undergraduate education mission.

Simply put, the enterprise act is about reducing the cost of government and being more responsive to opportunities to create jobs and generate revenue. It’s good business.

Today, we are being asked to do more than ever for South Carolina: We’re educating more South Carolinians, creating more jobs; generating more of our own resources and working more closely with the private sector to help our industries thrive in a global economy.

We gladly accept these challenges. We want to do more for South Carolina, because that’s why we exist. At the same time, we know that resources are scarce and demands on state funding are increasing. So we must make every dollar count.

We must continue to find ways to do more with less. We must be more successful in generating revenues through research, private-sector partnerships or private donors. And we need to be more responsive to the needs of industry – and that means WE have to move at THEIR pace.

This is not a new idea for the state or for higher education. The enterprise division is modeled after MUSC’s very successful hospital authority, which the legislative approved over a decade ago.  However, there is one important difference: Rather than establish a separate  authority, this bill would create a new division within Clemson University – and that difference was intended to  address any concerns about accountability and transparency.

Because these operations continue to reside under the Clemson umbrella, they remain subject to the S.C. Freedom of Information Act; their transactions will continue to be posted on our spending transparency website; the salaries of any enterprise employees earning over $50,000 will still be publicly available; capital projects will continue to require a competitive bid process; and every action taken by the Board of Trustees regarding enterprise activities will be done in a public session and entered into the public record – as is the case now.

We believe Clemson has earned the right to be trusted with a higher level of autonomy and regulatory flexibility. When we were given increased flexibility at CU-ICAR, we delivered in record time.

We’ve also demonstrated that Clemson is efficient and a good steward of state resources. Our administrative costs per student are about half of what they are at Georgia Tech. Since 2008 we’ve cut our administrative staff by near 12 percent.

And according to metrics established by Bain & Co. Financial Services, we’re actually financially more sound than we were before the recession.

We’ve proven we can be efficient and make good business decisions, and we can be even more efficient and successful with the management tools that this new university-state partnership will provide.

I would like to conclude my remarks by saying that it has been a privilege and an honor to serve my alma mater as president for nearly 14 years. After considerable reflection, I have decided that the time is right for a transition to the next phase of my Clemson career – as a faculty member in the School of Architecture. Therefore, today I have announced plans to retire as president as soon as the Board of Trustees has completed a search for the 15^th president of Clemson University.

There is never a perfect time for a transition in leadership, but certainly a very good time is when a university is in high demand, able to attract great faculty, staff and students, enjoys strong support from alumni and friends, is financially healthy, and has a strategic plan that is firmly supported by its governing board. That is where Clemson finds itself today, and I am certain there will be no shortage of outstanding candidates who will be attracted to what I consider to be the best job in the world. I know that the next president will come to appreciate your service and support of Clemson as much as I do. It has been a pleasure to work with the this committee, the Senate and all members of the General Assembly. I’m happy to respond to any questions.

4. Discover Clemson Research blog: Verbal aggression and athlete motivation; Exploring the coach and student-athlete relationship

https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2013/04/08/verbal-aggression-and-athlete-motivation-exploring-the-coach-and-athlete-relationship/

by Joseph Mazer, Katie Barnes, Alexia Grevious and Caroline Boger

Team sports function as vital informal learning settings in which athletes are taught, motivated, and mentored by their coaches. Research has indicated that coaches’ positive feedback and communication improves athletes’ ability to learn about their sport. Although many factors contribute to athletes’ experiences in their sports, one of the main influencing factors is the coach.

Rutgers University recently fired head men’s basketball coach Mike Rice, who came under fire for his extreme verbally and physically aggressive behaviors with his players during practice. A video revealed that Rice grabbed and pushed his players, kicked them, threw basketballs at their heads and backs, and also used homophobic slurs and obscenities.

Research by Professor Joseph Mazer and undergraduate students Katie Barnes, Alexia Grevious, and Caroline Boger recently explored communication in the coach and athlete relationship, specifically the effects of coaches’ use of verbal aggression on athlete motivation and perceptions of coach credibility. Their research was recently accepted for publication in the International Journal of Sport Communication.

Verbal aggressiveness is a communication trait that is destructive to one’s character and is used intentionally to hurt the receiver. This communication often causes the receiver to feel inadequate, humiliated, and depressed (Infante, 1995). Mazer, Barnes, Grevious, and Boger’s findings suggested that coaches who were highly verbally aggressive when interacting with a student-athlete, led athletes to experience significantly less motivation and led them to perceive the coach as significantly less credible.

Coaches may intend for their aggressive communication to correct athletes’ poor performance during competition and improve their overall effectiveness in the game. However, these communication choices can come at the expense of the athletes’ motivation and lead athletes to perceive the coach as less competent, trustworthy, and caring. When coaches yell at their players when they make mistakes, use condescending and profane language, and use other hurtful communication behavior, athletes report that they are less motivated to participate and perceive the verbally aggressive coach as low in credibility. On the other hand, coaches who use an affirming style with calm and supportive language can lead athletes to experience greater motivation and perceive the coach as more competent, trustworthy, and caring.

5. Vending Committee accepting fund requests April 18-May 20

http://media.clemson.edu/cfo/budgets/vending-specifics.pdf

Every soda, juice, candy bar and pack of crackers purchased from a campus vending machine has the potential to benefit your department.

Each year, a portion of Clemson’s vending machine revenues is allocated to fund activities not normally supported by departmental operating budgets. Clemson’s Vending Committee accepts requests for Vending Committee funds and awards these funds during its June meeting.

Any department or recognized University organization may request funds for specific activities – no blanket allocations are made and funds are not intended to supplement inadequate operating budgets. Vending funds cannot be used for alcoholic beverages. According to the Budget Office Policies and Procedures Manual, “priority will be given to local activities that enhance the intellectual and cultural life of the community.”

To make your funding request, download a request form at P:\CUBSRPT\Vending Committee Allocations  and have your Budget Center Business Offices submit to the Vending Committee via email to budgets@clemson.edu between April 18 and May 20, 2013.

• Requests should include itemized funding dollar amounts requested along with a summary explanation of the intended use of funds.
• Requests from academic departments should be coordinated through their respective Budget Center Business Office.
• Requests from student organizations should be channeled through Student Government and then forwarded to the Student Affairs Business Office.

Please note that ALL requests should be consolidated and submitted by the Budget Center Business Offices.

Funds allocated in a fiscal year must be spent during that fiscal year. Any unspent funds by fiscal year end will be returned to the Vending Committee account.

Budget Center Business Officers will be sent a letter in June informing them of whether the requested funds were approved or denied.

For more information, contact La’Toya Ritter, account/fiscal analyst, at latoyaj@clemson.edu or 656-5272.

6. Call for entries for the 6th annual c u in China photography contest

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/call-for-entries-for-the-6th-annual-c-u-in-china-photography-contest/

Clemson students, faculty, and staff are invited to submit up to three original photographs to the 6th annual c u in China photography contest, sponsored by the Clemson University Center for China Studies.  The images must have been taken in China between September 2012 and August 2013 and must be submitted in digital format, either via email to xhu@clemson.edu or on a CD-ROM via campus mail to the Clemson University Center for China Studies, 232 Brackett Hall.  In addition, each image must have a title or caption identifying the city or region where it was photographed and include contestant information (major and year for students, department/unit for faculty and staff).  Upon submission, the contestant gives the Center the permission to display the image(s) for publicity purposes on the Center website, in its newsletter, and/or in other appropriate venues.

A jury of selected Clemson faculty, staff, students, and community members will determine the winners on these three criteria: an image’s effectiveness in capturing a unique aspect of China in transition (most important); artistic originality; and technical quality.  The first place winner will receive a piece of artwork and $50, and two second- place winners will each receive $50.  Three honorable mention certificates will also be awarded.  The submission deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, 2013.

7. MITS raises over $1,500 for United Way

https://blogs.clemson.edu/ccit-news/2013/04/15/mits-uw/

The Medicaid IT Services (MITS) team has just concluded a CCIT United Way “Pocket Change for Change” challenge, raising over $1,500 for United Way. This is in addition to commitments made a few months ago when President Barker asked for donations via payroll deduction. Ceremonies to recognize this achievement were held at Eagles Landing and ICAR on April 9.

Carl Dombrosky led this challenge, turning it into a competitive event that got all of MITS engaged.

Because MITS staff is spread between two buildings at Eagles Landing in Clemson, and at ICAR in Greenville, and is not evenly distributed, they formed 4 teams. The 4 teams each had a team captain and created their own mascot name for the competition. A jar was placed in each area by the team captain with mascot identification for team contributions.

• First Place: Eagles Landing 934 1st floor’s “Painted Ponies” (Team Captain Katrina Ramos)
• Second Place: Eagles Landing 936A “Swoop the Eagle” (Team Captain Tiffany Ortega)
• Third Place: ICAR “Raci, the Speed Buggy” (Team Captain Cynthia “CJ” Smith)
• Fourth Place: Eagles Landing 934 2nd floor’s “Speedy Gonzales” (Team Captain Carla O’Kelley)

Carl added a twist to keep the competition interesting. Each team scored points by placing coins into a jar (1 penny = 1 point). Each team lost points when an opposing team placed bills into their jar ($1 = -100 points). There was a weekly cut-off for contributions. Each week the results were posted, so staff knew how their team was faring.

8. Upstate Writing Project Young Writers’ Camp

http://www.upstatewritingproject.org/site/node/71

9. PARKING/TRANSIT: Parking lot closures this week

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/parkingtransit-parking-lot-closures-this-week/

Parking around Fike Reserved Friday, April 19 beginning at 3 p.m.

Friday, April 19, parking around Fike Recreation Center will be reserved for Relay for Life participants and special guests. The E-14 lot (small lot closest to Williamson Road) will be reserved after 3 p.m. for cancer survivors participating in the relay. The large Fike parking lot (E-5) will be reserved for event participants after 4 p.m. Students, faculty, and staff are asked not to park in these areas until after the event concludes Saturday morning.

Parking at Lee Hall Reserved Saturday, April 20 beginning at 7 a.m.

The parking lots behind Lee Hall (C-4, C-5, and C-12) will be reserved Saturday, April 20, beginning at 7 a.m. for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.

Heavy Traffic around Sikes Hall on Saturday, April 20

Heavy traffic due to a high number of visitors is expected around Sikes Hall this Saturday, April 20. Students of the Performing Arts Department are hosting the free Clemson Jazz Festival in the Amphitheater from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Visitor parking are being directed to park in the Sikes Lot, Parkway Drive, Calhoun Drive, and Fort Hill Street. Please drive carefully in this area as this is a family oriented event and a number of attendees are expected.

Upcoming events

• T. Boone Pickens lecture on leadership   April 18
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/t_boone_pickens_lecture_on_leadership#.UW2yzoI5uK8
• Harvey Gantt to lecture at Clemson  April 19
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/caf_lecture_series_-_harvey_b_gantt#.UW2p84I5uK9
• Thrive: A Conscious Health Experience  April 20
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/thrive_a_conscious_health_experience#.UW2pWII5uK9
• Sequencing Simplified  April 23
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/sequencing_simplified#.UW2jPII5uK8

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. New leadership installed in Faculty and Staff Senates
2. T. Boone Pickens to speak at Clemson
3. New employee assistance program (EAP) offered to Clemson employees
4. Research: Thinking beyond lane-markings – Making informed decisions about distracted driving
5. Caution – Blake Snider wants Clemson students to attend school year-round
6. Introducing RidePost, the new ride-sharing program
7. Last chance: Staff Development Program deadline is 4:30 p.m. April 16
8. Learn about advancing digital communications with Adobe Creative Suite
9. Are you a Safe Tiger? Safe Tiger mug winners
10. PARKING/TRAFFIC event for this week

1. New leadership installed in Faculty and Staff Senates

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/new-leadership-installed-in-faculty-and-staff-senates/

Staff Senate

Angela Nixon was installed as president as the university’s staff senate. A member of the university’s media relations department, Nixon has worked for Clemson for 11 years and is a die-hard Tiger.

“ I am a Clemson girl; always have been,” said Nixon. “I graduated twice from Clemson and my dad went to Clemson.”

Nixon accepted the leadership gavel from Julia Lusk, who served as staff senate president in 2012-2013.

The 2013-2014 president plans to work closely with the faculty senate president and leadership from the student and graduate student senates. Her priorities include actively seeking and listening to staff input, promoting staff professional development opportunities and ensuring Staff Senate continues to have a seat at the table in discussions about compensation

Faculty Senate

At a ceremony on April 9, Kelly Smith became the 2013-2014 Faculty Senate president. A 15-year veteran of Clemson, Smith works as a professor of philosophy in the university’s College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities.

Smith congratulated outgoing Faculty Senate president Jeremy King and introduced the new faculty senators.

Among Smith’s priorities as president are reforming general education, expanding shared governance and working with Clemson’s leadership to improve opportunities for university faculty.

In other news:

• Michelle Piekutowski was presented with the Alan Schaffer award.

2. T. Boone Pickens to speak at Clemson

http://www.clemson.edu/media-relations/4811

T. Boone Pickens, one of America’s most successful businessmen, will share his insights on leadership in a public lecture at Clemson University at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts.

His “Thoughts on Leadership” presentation will focus on his tips to become an effective leader.

The Holdenville, Okla., native is visiting the area to explore his ties to Upstate South Carolina. Pickens is a descendent of Revolutionary War hero and congressman Andrew Pickens, for whom Pickens County is named.

“I have deep South Carolina roots going all the way back to John C. Calhoun and Gen. Andrew Pickens,” said Pickens. “I take considerable pride in the Pickens name and the wonderful heritage and history tied to our family and South Carolina. I’m eager to return there and rekindle our family’s love and respect of our ancestry.”

Pickens built one of the nation’s largest independent oil companies, Mesa Petroleum, and later reinvented himself in his 70s as one of the most successful investment fund operators with BP Capital. In July 2008, Boone launched the Pickens Plan, a grass-roots campaign aimed at reducing America’s dependence on OPEC oil. He is the author of the 2008 book “The First Billion is the Hardest,” which details his ideas on energy independence.

A graduate of Oklahoma State University, Pickens is a generous philanthropist, giving more than $1 billion in donations to various efforts in his lifetime. He has given more than $500 million in support of academics and athletics at his alma mater.

Pickens’ many professional honors include membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the Texas Business Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 1998, the Oil & Gas Investor listed him as one of the “100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century.”

Pickens lecture is free, but please register online if you plan to attend.

3. New employee assistance program (EAP) offered to Clemson employees

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/new-employee-assistance-program-eap-offered-to-clemson-employees/

The Office of Human Resources announced a new employee assistance program (EAP) provided through an outside resource, Deer Oaks EAP. Services offered through this program will be available to Clemson University faculty and staff and their dependents with a focus on the importance of work/life balance.  Through Deer Oaks, there will be a variety of training courses and seminars that employees will have access to such as leadership, coaching, communication skills, dealing with change and many more.  Additionally, counseling services will be available to include personal, family, and marriage counseling, financial and legal consultations, conflict resolution, substance abuse and other issues that may affect work or life balance.  All counseling services are confidential. Faculty and staff may also access online resources provided by Deer Oaks EAP by visiting www.deeroaks.com and logging into Member Services with “clemson” as both the username and password.

In most cases, there will be no cost to the employee for counseling services.

Several orientation sessions for this program will be held at the dates and times shown below.

Deer Oaks Orientation Sessions

• April 23, 10 a.m.,   McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 23, 11 a.m., McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 23, noon, McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 24, noon-1 p.m., webinar only

Other Upcoming Events

Financial/Budgeting seminars and webinar:

• April 11, 1 -2 p.m., McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 12, 9:30-10:30 a.m., McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 16 11:00 a.m.-noon, McKissick Theatre at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 18, 2-3 p.m., webinar only

Click here to register for any of the events above.  If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Human Resources at Ask-HR.

3. Research: Thinking beyond lane-markings: Making informed decisions about distracted driving

https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2012/11/08/thinking-beyond-lane-markings-making-informed-decisions-about-distracted-driving/

by Matthew Crisler

At some level, most people can agree that being distracted while behind the wheel is dangerous; however, it is quite difficult to make clear distinctions regarding appropriate behavior with regard to engaging in distraction.  Significant research efforts have been devoted to determining the safety consequences of various activities while driving, and organizations such as the National Transportation Safety Board have used these studies to suggest that using cell phones while driving should be banned entirely; however, such bans have not been widely instituted likely due to some degree to the desire by drivers to continue using these devices even though it can be shown to objectively reduce safety.  Our research suggests that there will be an uphill battle with regards to instituting policies to limit or prohibit cell phone use while driving partially due to the nature of the effects that talking on a cell phone while driving causes.

Many people would expect that being involved in a highly engaging cell phone conversation while driving would result in weaving within the lane; however, the research on the topic suggests otherwise.  More so than causing a driver to weave within the lane or lose control of the vehicle, distraction appears to limit one’s ability to identify and respond to relevant objects or situations that occur in the environment.  Distracted drivers are less likely to brake in time to avoid a vehicle that suddenly pulls into their lane or a child that suddenly runs into the roadway. (If you’ve ever seen a vehicle weaving sloppily in its lane and then confirmed your suspicion that the driver was using a phone, imagine how much worse that driver would be at responding to the sudden appearance of a piece of debris in the roadway.)  Our research suggests that this distinction between using steering to control the vehicle within the lane and responding to events quickly and appropriately can lead drivers to be over-confident in their ability to drive safely while distracted.  In a simulated driving experiment, drivers did not appear to recognize that distraction affected these two abilities differently.  Instead, our data suggest that drivers may gauge whether they are capable of multitasking while driving based on their lane-keeping performance while ignoring the ability to identify and respond to changes in the driving environment appropriately.  That is, if we see ourselves as being good lane-keepers we may not FEEL distracted, even though our ability to respond quickly to a suddenly seen event may be dangerously degraded. And if drivers don’t feel that their cell phone distracts them then we shouldn’t be surprised that so many are willing to use their phones for all manner of activities that are unrelated to driving.

While engaging in distracting activities while driving remains a legal activity for now, it is important that drivers think about the safety consequences of their distracting activities.  In order to do so effectively, it is important that drivers recognize that driving is a set of very complex tasks that lane-keeping ability does not measure.  Instead, drivers should base their decisions about whether to engage in distracting activities on the knowledge that it is primarily their ability to react to changes in the driving environment that will be compromised. No driver should be fooled into believing that their ability to avoid weaving in their lane means that that they are devoting enough attention to their driving.

5. Caution – Blake Snider wants Clemson students to attend school year-round

https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/staff/2013/caution-blake-snider-wants-clemson-students-to-attend-school-year-round/?fs

By Robin Halcomb

As an undergraduate at Lee University, J. Blake Snider, summer school director at Clemson, really enjoyed college.

“My wife, Kristy, says I went to college and never left,” Snider said. “I attended summer school full-time for two years, which allowed me to graduate in three.”

Higher education is the driving passion in Snider’s life, so it shouldn’t come as a shock to learn that he hopes to see most students consider summer school as a normal part of their Clemson experience.

“I really want students to see summer school as a place that has value,” Snider said. “As a research school, the curriculum at Clemson is very tight, so summer school could be the time that students focus on their careers or professional development without taking away from what we try to do in the classroom.”

Visioning the Future

Snider, who came on board as director of summer school in 2012, is excited about making Clemson’s summer school a cutting-edge market for innovative programs.

“We’ve launched a marketing campaign aimed at enrolling more students in 2013, and I’m preparing to propose an offering to fund and support development of hands-on courses,” Snider said. “The idea is that, by doing a hands-on program, those students would add value to their degree and have something on their resume to really point to. We have a vibrant internship program, but some don’t have the opportunity to participate. The program would allow them to spend some time in the classroom and do something in their field.”

For now, the Anniston, Ala., native is learning everything he can about Clemson, working with other departments, monitoring course offerings and looking at year-to-year changes. Currently, summer school has seven sessions, including Summer I, Summer II, Long Summer and four minimesters. Several experimental and unique programs also operate during summer, such as Forestry Summer Camp, and Snider hopes to leverage that.

Snider’s enthusiasm about the future is tempered by experience, but he is committed to making Clemson the best it can possibly be.

“Change takes time, and I like to give people a sense of where we are and where we’d like to be,” Snider said. “What sets Clemson apart is that it’s Clemson. Kiplinger ranked the school one of the best college values, and I want to add more to that.”

Snider and wife, Kristy, have two sons: Nathan, 10, and Brennan, 7. In his limited spare time, Snider enjoys working out, reading and attending Cub Scout events. He admits to being a heavy metal music fan who likes rocking out to Metallica, but even talking music won’t get him far from his life’s work.

“The music of my generation was pure hedonism,” Snider said, laughing. “Sort of the antithesis of career development.”

6. Introducing RidePost, the new ride-sharing program

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/introducing-ridepost-the-new-ride-sharing-program/

Parking and Transportation Services has partnered with RidePost to launch a more cost effective, social network for ride-sharing that has the potential to provide us with added features and analytical options that will help to quantify how many cars and emissions we are reducing on campus.

RidePost is a web-based interface using a private network that empowers Clemson University students, faculty and staff to create a safe and social way to find rides with other verified Clemson members with similar commuting patterns by finding friends to share commutes to campus or even one-time rides (such as going home for breaks, making trips to the airport, sporting, events, concerts or to visit friends and family in other cities). RidePost helps you fill empty seats in your car while saving you money!

Click here for more information about Clemson’s new ridesharing program.

7. Last chance: Staff Development Program deadline is 4:30 p.m. April 16

http://media.clemson.edu/sdp/application.pdf

8. Learn about advancing digital communications with Adobe Creative Suite

http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/learning_tech/ccit_training/index.html

9. Are you a safe tiger? Safe Tiger mug winners

http://www.clemson.edu/administration/risk/safe-tiger.html

10. PARKING/TRAFFIC events for this week

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/parkingtraffic-events-for-this-week/

Parking at Brooks Center: White spaces reserved Thursday, April 10

Thursday, April 10, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved in the morning for Clemson University’s Jazz Ensemble, a Eskridge Tri-Art Series presentation. The performance begins at 9:30 a.m. and spaces will be released after the performance has begun. For more information, visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/triart.php.

Closures near Littlejohn Thursday, April 11 for Avett Brothers concert

The Avenue of Champions will be closed to traffic and parking in between Centennial Boulevard and Perimeter Road starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, April 11. The road is closing to allow for set up for the Avett Brothers concert in Littlejohn Coliseum.

CAT buses will continue to operate on their normal routes, but buses will NOT pick up riders at the Littlejohn tunnel. Riders will need to board the bus at the corner of Centennial Boulevard and Avenue of Champions, across from the IPTAY offices at Memorial Stadium.

Beginning at 4:30 p.m., parking along Centennial Blvd and Ravenel Road as well the C7, C9, P3, and P4 parking lots will be reserved for concert parking and subject to parking charges. Any vehicles currently in the lot at this time will be allowed stay at no charge, but all vehicles entering these parking areas after 4:30 p.m. will be charged to park.

Ravenel Road closed Friday, April 12

Ravenel Road will be closed from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday, April 12 for the student loading/unloading for the Biology Merit Exam. Please drive cautiously as there will be a high number of students in this area.

Clemson Orange & White spring football game Saturday, April 13 – Expect heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic

Clemson Athletics will host the Clemson Spring Game on Saturday, April 13. There are a host of activities occurring throughout the day and a high number of visitors are expected across campus. For more information about athletic events, visit www.clemsontigers.com.

Upcoming events

• Suzanne Bellamy – Under Southern Skies, An Australian Perspective on the World International Exhibition  through April 12
• Wunderkammer Exhibition  through April 12
• Reception for Wunderkammer exhibition  April 12
• South Carolina Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale  April 12
• Seminar: Is the World Flat?  April 19

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Semi-monthly pay: Financial/Budgeting seminars offered
2. Steve Cole named interim director of regulatory services at Clemson
3. April 9 Creative Inquiry forum highlights sustainability, bioengineering and other student research
4. Barker’s blog: CU Enterprise Act streamlines duplicate processes; maintains accountability
5. Discovery Research blog: A holistic approach to preventing and treating cancer
6. Student registration: iROAR help centers available through April 11
7. Being Mr. and Mrs. Clemson — Ron Grant and Janet Bean bring the Clemson spirit to life
8. A life in the Clemson library, enriched by the Staff Development Program
9. Got summer plans for your kids? Pre-Collegiate programs office offers academic summer programs for 7th – 12th grade students
10. CCIT Upcoming professional development opportunities
11. PARKING/TRANSIT: CAT deviations, parking and roadway closures, and towing events this week
12. OBITUARIES: Louise Chapman Elliott, retiree; Richard Hegg, retiree

1. Semi-monthly pay: Financial/Budgeting seminars offered

Semi-monthly pay: Financial/Budgeting seminars offered

Last month, an announcement was sent out regarding the University’s transition to a semi-monthly pay cycle beginning June 2013.  In order to provide assistance as you continue planning for these changes, the university has partnered with an external resource to provide financial/budgeting seminars to all faculty and staff.

Financial/Budgeting seminars will be held at the dates/times shown below.  A webinar will be also be held for anyone not able to attend in person.

Financial/Budgeting Seminars & Webinar:

• April 11, 1-2 p.m., McKissick Theater at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 12, 9:30-10:30 a.m., McKissick Theater at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 16, 11 a.m. – noon, McKissick Theater at the Hendrix Student Center
• April 18, 2-3 p.m., Webinar only

Click here to register for any of the events above.  If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Human Resources at Ask-HR.

For your reference, the information that was previously sent out regarding the paycheck cycle change may be viewed at:  http://www.clemson.edu/employment/compensation/Semi-Monthly.html.

2. Steve Cole named interim director of Regulatory Services at Clemson

http://www.clemson.edu/media-relations/4812

Steve Cole, head of Clemson University’s plant industry department, has been named interim director of the state’s Regulatory Services at the university. He succeeds Neil Ogg, who is retiring Friday following 37 years of service.

Clemson Regulatory Services is the designated state agency to safeguard the health of South Carolina’s crops, forests and landscape plants.

“Neil Ogg’s career of service to the state has been exemplary,” said George Askew, Clemson associate vice president for Public Service Activities. “He has championed a number of visionary causes, such as leading the effort to keep fertilizer from being misused as an explosive, the first such legislation in the nation.

“He has been at the forefront of securing new technology, such as the polymerase chain reaction laboratory in the Plant Problem Clinic and new software allowing soil recommendations to be downloaded to smart phones,” Askew said.

“South Carolina agriculture and Clemson University have benefited greatly from Neil’s career of leadership,” he said. “We are fortunate to have strong leadership within the unit that enables us to continue to move forward. Steve Cole is well-prepared to shepherd Regulatory Services during this transition.”

A former Georgia Department of Agriculture official and county Extension agent, Cole joined Clemson in 2012 to oversee plant inspection and certification programs designed to protect South Carolina farms, forests and green-industry businesses.

Cole served for more than a decade managing regulatory programs in the Georgia agriculture department, most recently as director of the department’s seed, fertilizer and feed section. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at University of Tennessee and a doctorate at the University of Georgia.

Clemson’s Regulatory Services include four areas: plant industry, pesticide regulation, plant problem clinic and homeland security:

• Plant Industry functions include nursery inspection, survey and eradication of invasive plant and pest species, fertilizer and lime regulation, and seed and organic certification.
• Pesticide Regulation is responsible for licensing pest management professionals and pesticide applicators, analyzing and registering pesticide products, and investigating pesticide misuse cases.
• The Plant Problem Clinic identifies plant diseases, insect pests and weeds for regulatory action, as well as for the public in collaboration with Clemson Extension agents.
• Homeland Security protects the state’s agricultural and food crops against agroterrorism or other catastrophic events.

3. April 9 Creative Inquiry forum highlights sustainability, bioengineering and other student research

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/uncategorized/april-9-focus-on-creative-inquiry-forum-highlights-sustainability-bioengineering-and-other-student-research/

The eighth annual Focus on Creative Inquiry is a glimpse into the future. Featuring the research of our undergraduate students, the poster forum displays a few of the more than 400 projects initiated by Clemson University Creative Inquiry teams. We have more than 3,000 students participating in Creative Inquiry, on more than 400 teams. These 250+ projects have resulted in 188 presentations at professional meetings, 95 publications in professional journals and three patent applications.

In the course of their investigations, our students have traveled to Africa and Haiti. They were integral to the establishment of the Social Media Listening Center, the first of its kind on a college campus in the US. Through their participation in Creative Inquiry, Clemson students have learned to be thinkers, leaders and entrepreneurs.

This year’s forum features a series of interactive exhibits:

• Cooking with a chef: 1 – 3 p.m.
• Sustainable foods: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
• Bioengineering demonstrations: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
• Social media listening lab: 10 a.m. – Noon
• Explant retrieval: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
• Box turtle road safety: 10: a.m. – Noon
• Sonicator demonstration: 1 – 3 p.m.

The Hendrix Center is the setting for this one-of-a-kind experience. Posters are on display from 10 a.m. – Noon and 1-3 p.m. on the second floor. The plenary session and awards presentation are at 3:15 p.m. in McKissick Theater.

Find out more at http://www.clemson.edu/ci/assets/documents/foci/2013.pdf

4. Barker’s blog: CU Enterprise Act streamlines duplicate processes; maintains accountability

https://blogs.clemson.edu/barkers-blog/2013/04/the-clemson-university-enterprise-act/

A bill recently introduced in the South Carolina Senate — the Clemson University Enterprise Act — creates an innovative, new state/university partnership that would give Clemson tools to be more efficient, cost-effective and nimble in managing operations outside the core undergraduate academic mission. It would streamline many of the time-consuming, duplicative processes we face, while maintaining full accountability back to the state.

The legislation would create a new division within Clemson University – an enterprise division – which would include units that need to operate like businesses or activities where we interact with the private sector. Examples would be CU-ICAR, athletics or student housing.

This is not a new idea for the state or for higher education. The enterprise division is modeled after the Medical University of South Carolina’s very successful hospital authority, which the General Assembly approved more than a decade ago.

Essentially, the legislation would give the Board of Trustees fiscal and directional control of operations within the enterprise division – and it would allow us to create alternative personnel, procurement and capital project processes for those operations. Any board actions on enterprise division matters would be taken during public meetings and entered into the public record, as is the case now.

To maintain state oversight, it would require mandatory reports to the Governor, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. It also requires an annual independent audit of the enterprise division, with findings reported to those same three individuals.

The enterprise legislation is essential to Clemson’s success in implementing the 2020 Road Map. Saving time and money now spent on duplicative approval processes can help us meet our reallocation targets. Being able to respond more quickly to private-sector partnerships will support our economic development initiatives and, in turn, make South Carolina more competitive. Streamlined personnel and procurement processes can make us more successful in competing for research contracts which will make our state more attractive to private industry.

It’s also important to recognize that there are many things the enterprise legislation won’t do. It won’t impact our core undergraduate education programs. It won’t affect faculty tenure, review and promotion procedures that are governed by the faculty manual. It won’t change restrictions on land-use land. It won’t eliminate the competitive bid process for capital projects.  It won’t eliminate state benefits or grievance rights for staff.  And, most importantly, it does not contradict the will of Thomas Green Clemson.

I will commit to keeping you posted as this legislation progresses through the General Assembly.  In the meantime, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Governmental Affairs office.

5. Discovery Research blog: A holistic approach to preventing and treating cancer

https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2013/03/19/a-holistic-approach-to-preventing-and-treating-cancer/

by Jacqueline Dickens

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates

I believe in the healing power of food.  Does this sound strange coming from a nursing student?  As someone who has completed advanced coursework in pharmacotherapy and pathophysiology, do you expect me to automatically think that pharmacological agents would most adequately manage a patient’s problem?  When you visit your healthcare provider, do you anticipate an order for a prescription medication order instead of the recommendation for a complementary or alternative medicine (CAM)?  When, exactly, did we get away from using diet, herbs and plants as treatments?  As I ponder these questions, I am reminded of a joke outlining the 4,000-year history of medicine:

2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1940 A.D. – That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1985 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 A.D. – That antibiotic is dangerous. Here, eat this root.

Although ironic, I hope that as a society, we are getting back to our ‘roots’ and using real food, plants and herbs for natural, healing purposes.

Conventional, science-based medicine is mainstream in western society today.  But allopathic medicine is not the only answer.  Over one-third of adults in the United States use some form of complementary or alternative therapy, whether they realize it or not.  The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine classifies these treatments into five domains: (1) alternative medical systems such as traditional eastern medicine or indigenous systems including acupuncture and tai chi; (2) mind-body interventions such as meditation and the use of spiritual healers; (3) biologically-based therapies like herbalism, diet therapy or single nutrient usage; (4) manipulative and body-based methods to include chiropractic medicine, massage and reflexology; (5) energy therapies involving biofields or electromagnetic fields.  While conventional medicine focuses on the physical part of the patient’s body, holistic health care addresses integrated physical, spiritual, energetic and social elements (Townsend, 2012).

In October 2001, James ‘Rhio’ O’Connor received a devastating diagnosis for pleural mesothelioma. This rare cancer, caused by exposure to asbestos, affects the protective sac encompassing the pleural cavity of the lungs. In Rhio’s case, surgery was not possible and he shied away from traditional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. Rhio’s oncologist predicted he had less than a year to live. But through working with professional clinicians to develop a plan that incorporated a vegetarian diet, natural supplements and mind-body medicine, Rhio outlived these estimates by six years. I believe this was largely attributed to his sense of self-discipline, a natural curiosity and incredible determination (Cancer Monthly, Inc., 2012).

I truly admire Rhio’s will to live. If faced with a similar situation, I would like to think I would respond in the same manner.  It is important to thoroughly research the afflicting disease, including searching for recent clinical studies and long-term survivors who have defied the odds of their prognosis. I would not limit my investigation to conventional treatments prescribed by allopathic doctors, but would also consider CAMs and the recommendations of holistic medicine clinicians. Just as each person is unique, I believe the impact of disease can be equally individual.

What if instead of being used simply as treatment methods, CAM was incorporated into one’s everyday lifestyle, pre-diagnosis?  I believe that preventative measures would lower the incidence of cancer, disease and other chronic conditions in our society.  This is the reason behind why I try to live a healthy lifestyle.  An endurance athlete, my exercise regiment also encompasses restorative activities and stress management techniques such as Pilates method and yoga.  One of the most significant changes I made in my life occurred one year ago when I adopted a vegan diet, low in processed foods and high in organic fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The corresponding improvements I saw in my health have truly been phenomenal.

The concept of using nutrition to help manage or prevent a chronic disease is not a new idea.  Researchers Caldwell Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell have investigated this topic since the 1960s.  Many diseases such as cancer have heritability components, but are also affected by environmental factors.  One of the most exciting benefits of good nutrition is the prevention of diseases that were previously thought to be due to genetic predisposition.  According to the American Dietetic Association, “The results of an evidence-based review showed vegetarians tend to have a lower overall cancer rates” (“Position of the,” 2009).  If excluding animal proteins from the diet turns off cancer genes via epigenetics and decreases risk for cancer and chronic diseases, I am all in (Campbell & Campbell II, 2006).

I get questions all the time about why I choose to follow such ‘extreme’ diet modifications.  But is plant-based nutrition really extreme, particularly when compared to some modern cancer treatments such as cutting into the human body to remove an internal component, injecting poisonous chemicals into the body or blasting it with radioactive particles?  While I don’t doubt these methods are proven means of treating cancer, all three sound pretty radical to me!  If I can do a few things pertaining to diet and exercise now to enhance my quality of life in the future, why not? What do I really have to lose?

Thomas Edison predicted, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”  In my opinion, preventive medicine is the most important component of health care, yet it is largely marginalized by society.  As a nursing student and an associate at a national health and organic grocery store, I frequently speak with people about leading healthy lifestyles.  But as a new Registered Nurse in 2014, I feel I will be even better equipped to educate patients on the effectiveness of diet and CAM in preventing and treating disease.

6. Student registration: iROAR help centers available through April 11

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/student-registration-iroar-help-centers-available-april-1-11/

Students will be using iROAR for the first time to register for fall classes.  Like anything new, we are expecting that some will need assistance navigating and understanding the new procedures to register for classes.  Help Centers will be set up on campus to assist students April 1-11 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

Help center locations include:

• Brackett 342
• Sirrine G-12
• Long Hall 228
• Edwards 203

Encourage your students to view “how to register” and other helpful registration videos at
www.clemson.edu/iroar.

7. Being Mr. and Mrs. Clemson — Ron Grant and Janet Bean bring the Clemson spirit to life

https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/staff/2013/being-mr-and-mrs-clemson-ron-grant-and-janet-bean-bring-the-clemson-spirit-to-life/?fs

By Molly Collins, Class of 2013
Media Relations

Founder’s Day marks a time when Clemson University commemorates the death of its founder, Thomas Green Clemson, while celebrating his determined spirit and vision for public education. He died on April 6, 1888, but on occasion, you can spot Thomas and his wife, Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, around campus. But those aren’t ghosts that you are seeing.

Meet Ron Grant, director of college relations for the College of Engineering and Science, and Janet Bean, undergraduate student services coordinator for the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The two dress as Mr. and Mrs. Clemson for multiple campus events, including Founder’s Day.

“The first time I played Thomas Green Clemson was for a college event in 2004,” Grant said. “More regularly, it started in 2009. The Legacy Day committee was looking for somebody to play Thomas Green Clemson, and I was the only one with the beard to say that I would do it.”

Grant remained solo for some time, but in fall 2011, the Legacy Day committee decided that it was time to pay tribute to Anna. While Thomas had the plan to offer education as the solution to the economic downfall of the South after the Civil War, the land that would serve as the location for an institute of higher learning belonged to her, and she was a big advocate of her husband’s vision. Bean was working as a tour guide at Fort Hill on football Saturdays when she was asked to suit up in corset and crinolines.

“It was time to give props to Mrs. Clemson,” Bean said. “I’m the right age, and Ron and I are about 10 years apart in age like Thomas and Anna were.”

Grant and Bean make appearances at many campus events celebrating the history of the University. Most recently, they were in character for the celebration of Thomas and Anna’s wedding anniversary, as well a birthday celebration for Anna in February. But of the many appearances they make, Legacy Day — which takes place in November — is a true favorite of the two, as it is a time when many students are introduced to Fort Hill.

“That’s probably my favorite event,” Grant said. “A lot of them have not been to the house before, and a lot of people say that if you come in this house you won’t graduate. I tell students that if you don’t come in this house in your four years, then you won’t graduate.”

For Bean, it’s the fact that so many students come into the house.

“There were more than 500 in a little over two hours this past year. It was exciting to see that number of students come in and learn about the history, and we had fun taking pictures with them.”

Grant and Bean love interacting with students while in costume and posing for photographs. And while many students do recognize them as University employees, Grant and Bean aren’t exactly themselves when in costume.

“When you put the costume on, it’s very different than what one wears today,” Bean said. “I’m wearing a long dress, a corset and crinolines. There’s a limit to your range in motion. I have a greater respect for anything a woman is able to do in that type of clothing.”

“It’s much more formal,” Grant said. “When we first started doing this, we were trying to evoke the spirit of Thomas Green Clemson, and the feeling at that time was that we could better accomplish that if I never spoke. Since Anna has joined us, she speaks, and I still typically don’t.”

But beyond the spectacle of appearing in costume, Grant and Bean relish the opportunity to pay tribute to these figures.

“They are an excellent example of what two people can do with a vision and with a sense of community,” Grant said. “And it is an honor to play the founder of the University. It has given me the opportunity to meet students, staff, friends of the University and alumni that I would have never known.”

“It’s a great honor,” Bean said. “You gain a greater appreciation for the people and what they were able to do.”

Suffice it to say, Grant and Bean have become an integral part of Clemson University’s many tributes to its founding. And just like the time-honored tradition of Founder’s Day, we might think of the live appearance of the Clemsons as a tradition in itself.

Founder’s Day Event: http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/founders_day_event

8. A life in the Clemson library, enriched by the Staff Development Program

https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/staff/2013/a-life-in-the-clemson-library-enriched-by-the-staff-development-program/

When Micki Reid says she has been in R.M. Cooper Library her entire life, she means that quite literally. Reid has been spending time in the library since before she was born.

Her mother, Wilma C. Burkett, worked in the library for 38 years, during which time she was pregnant with Reid. Reid recalls spending a lot of time in the library as a child, and she worked as a student employee in the library while she was earning her bachelor’s degree in education from Clemson. She became a full-time employee at the library in 1993 and has been there ever since.

Reid is now the library’s communication coordinator and is tasked with publicizing the library’s services and programs to students, faculty, staff and the community. Many people are familiar with Reid’s work, though they may not know it. She’s the person behind the library’s social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the library’s blog. She has even incorporated her hobby of photography into her work, posting a “photo of the day” every day on the library blog.

In 2011, Reid was accepted to participate in the Staff Development Program (SDP). As someone who participated in the library’s Career Success Program, which was very similar to the SDP, she knew it would be a challenge, but that it would also be rewarding.

“After you work here so long, you become complacent,” she said. “Doing something like this creates opportunities that you might not have been aware of previously. It’s nice to challenge yourself and to seek out opportunities that you normally wouldn’t have taken the time to do.”

In the SDP, participants work out a plan to accomplish 150 hours of professional development, personal development and University involvement/service activities, working toward specific goals in each area. Reid’s professional goals included helping to develop a Creative Inquiry team on library instruction and marketing. One of her personal goals was to take a photography class at Tri-County Technical College. She also took several Skillport classes online on topics ranging from Photoshop to creativity to stress relief.

For her community service, she volunteered in her hometown of Six Mile, using her communication expertise to help publicize the town’s Christmas parade and Issaqueena Festival. Even though her participation in the SDP ended last year, she has continued to remain active with her service to Six Mile by helping plan and promote their events.

Reid said the SDP was a very worthwhile program for her on a number of different levels.

“A program like this reminds you to get out of your box, to get out of your office and your department and do some different things that will benefit both you and the University,” she said. “It reminds you that the University has all these different functions and that we’re all working toward the same goal, to make Clemson the best place it can be for our students and for the other people who work here.”

She said the program helped her bond with her library colleagues who were also participating in the SDP, and that she has served as a resource and supporter for library staffers who are currently in the program.

Reid believes the administration’s support of the SDP speaks volumes about how much staff are valued at Clemson.

“I am so happy that the University is so supportive of staff enrichment through this program,” she said. “It was such a great experience.”

---

Applications for the next year of the SDP will be taken March 15 through April 16. For more information on eligibility requirements and to download an application, visit http://www.clemson.edu/sdp/eligibility.html.

9. Got summer plans for your kids? Pre-Collegiate programs office offers academic summer programs for 7th – 12th grade students
http://www.clemson.edu/summer/summer-science/

10. CCIT Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities

http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/learning_tech/ccit_training/index.html

11. PARKING/TRANSIT: CAT deviations, parking and roadway closures, and towing events this week

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/parkingtransit-cat-deviations-parking-and-roadway-closures-and-towing-events-this-week/

Parking at Brooks Center: White spaces reserved Thursday, April 4

Thursday, April 4, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved in the morning for Tempest Trio, a Eskridge Tri-Art Series presentation. The performance begins at 9:30 a.m. and spaces will be released after the performance has begun. For more information, visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/triart.php.

Parking at Brooks Center: Towing beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 4

Thursday, April 4, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved starting at 6 p.m. for Patron’s Row parking for the performance of Tempest Trio. Any vehicles left in these spaces after 6 p.m. will be subject to tow. For more information about the show, visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/detail.php?ID=602.

CAT bus deviation beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, April 5

Friday, April 5, TigerPaw Productions is hosting Tigeritaville, an outdoor concert on the lawn of Littlejohn Coliseum. Beginning at 4 p.m., Centennial Boulevard will be blocked from Ravenel Road to the Avenue of Champions. This concert impacts the following areas:

• The Avenue of Champions from the IPTAY Office to the Littlejohn Coliseum Tunnel will be closed to vehicle traffic and the parking reserved for concert preparations.
• CAT buses will be rerouted on their way back into campus from Perimeter Road to take a right onto S.C. highway 93 and then a right onto Williamson Road to get back on route. This means that Ravenel Road/Centennial Boulevard bus stop, Centennial Boulevard/Avenue of Champions bus stop, and the Breezeway stop along the route heading into campus will not be serviced after 4 p.m.
• Vehicles parked on Centennial Boulevard and in the C-9 parking lot will need to relocate.

Calhoun Drive closed beginning at 5 a.m. Sunday, April 7

Calhoun Drive from just past the entrance to the Sikes parking lot to Tillman will be closed to vehicle traffic for set up of the Clemson International Festival. Parking for this event is directed to Parkway Drive and the Daniel Drive area near Clemson House.

Students are asked not to park in E-6 or Parkway Drive on Saturday, April 6 to reserve parking for festival guests.

Increased traffic around Hendrix Student Center Tuesday, April 9

There will be a large number of visitors on campus on Tuesday, April 9 for the Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum. Please allow extra time to find parking if you typically park in this area. If you are attending the forum, please consider riding the CAT Bus to Hendrix Student Center rather than driving. For more information about this event,  visit  http://www.clemson.edu/academics/programs/creative-inquiry/opportunities/foci/.

12. OBITUARIES: Louise Chapman Elliott, retiree; Richard Hegg, retiree

Louise Chapman Elliott, 87, of Seneca died March 24, 2013. She served as an accounting technician for the College of Agricultural Science and retired in 1991 after 17 years of service.

Elliott is survived by her husband, two children, family and friends.

A funeral service was held March 26.

Memorials may be made to Alzheimer’s Association, South Carolina Chapter, 4124 Clemson Blvd., Suite L, Anderson, S.C. 29621 or American Cancer Society, 154 Milestone Way, Greenville, S.C. 29615.

Condolences may be expressed online at davenportfuneralhome.com.

Richard Hegg, retiree

Richard Hegg of Arlington, Va. died April 1, 2013. He served as department head of agriculture engineering and retired in 1997 after 30 years of service.

Hegg is survived by his wife, two children, family and friends.

Hegg will be laid to rest later this week near his hometown of Bruce, South Dakota.

Condolences can be sent to the Hegg Family at 1101 S. Arlington Ridge Rd., #1210, Arlington, VA  22202.

Upcoming events

• Horticulture Student Plant Sale Fridays: April 5, 12 and 19
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/horticulture_student_plant_sale_6039#.UVsPSxncc4k
• Botanical Garden Spring Concert Series ~ Christopher Branch April 5
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/spring_concert_series_christopher_branch#.UVsaSBncc4k
• Office of Research Compliance Brown Bag Seminar: Introduction to Data Management and Planning April 8
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/orc_brown_bag_seminar_introduction_to_data_management_and_planning#.UVsTHRncc4k
• Professor Elisa Kay Sparks’ Last Lecture April 8
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/professor_elisa_kay_sparks_last_lecture#.UVsMBRncc4l
• Southern Belles and Brother Masons: Stories of Sherman’s March  April 8
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/southern_belles_and_brother_masons_stories_of_shermans_march#.UVsTjxncc4l
• Clemson Home: Environmental and Sustainability Day April 8
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/clemson_home_environmental_sustainability_day
• Clemson Home: Appreciation Day April 9
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/clemson_home_appreciation_day
• PBK Visiting Scholar Tyler Burge to speak on Perception April 10
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/pbk_visiting_scholar_tyler_burge_to_speak_on_perception#.UVsYexncc4k
• ANOVA Research workshop April 10
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/anova_research_workshop#.UVwGxxncc4l
• Clemson Home: Campus-Wide Luncheon April 11
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/clemson_home_campus-wide_luncheon
• MAPC 20th Anniversary Event April 12
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/mapc_20th_anniversary_event#.UVsOlRncc4l
• Race to the Rock: The President’s Race for the Library April 13
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/race_to_the_rock_the_presidents_race_for_the_library#.UVsOHhncc4k
• T. Boone Pickens lecture on leadership April 18
  http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/t_boone_pickens_lecture_on_leadership#.UVsSqxncc4k

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Clemson professor’s research can result in more fluid motion for robots
2. Lischwe named director of sponsored programs in the Division of Research
3. Staff Development Program application period open through April 16
4. Creative Inquiry offers invaluable opportunities for faculty and students
5. Clemson golf course named to “Best You Can Play” list
6. Join Clemson Home April 8-11 for free food, prizes and giveaways
7. SRASC hosts estate-planning seminar/lunch April 17; registration required
8. Summer Camps and Programs abound at Clemson for “Tomorrow’s Tigers”
9. PARKING/TRAFFIC: New WeCar added at CU-ICAR

1. Clemson professor’s research can result in more fluid motion for robots

Ian Walker, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Clemson University, has always had a strong interest in biology. Specifically, he has always wondered what it would take to make a robot that could emulate invertebrate “trunks and tentacles.” After 20+ years of research, they are still only scratching the surface of what could be created.

The focus of Walker’s research is looking into developing robots that, instead of having rigid “links and joints” as in our own arms and legs, have smooth profiles like elephant trunks and octopus arms. These “continuum robots” can bend anywhere, as well as maybe extend and contract in length. For the space-related NASA work, he is looking for ways to make very long and thin continuum robots, like robot ropes. These robots could enter and navigate hard-to-reach places like crevasses in rocks and underground cavities.

“Continuum robots are beginning to be used in minimally invasive medical procedures as active endoscopes and in keyhole surgeries. They are also applicable to various manufacturing and military situations, and for search and rescue in disaster relief,” said Walker.

In order to conduct this research, they use a mix of novel design methods and math to model and control the robots. The tentative findings are that it will be possible, though hard, to make these new kinds of robots work. Ahead in this research are more versatile, thinner and more powerful “trunk and tentacle” robots.

Walker received the B.S. in mathematics from the University of Hull, England, in 1983 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 and 1989, respectively. He then joined the faculty in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, where he served until 1997. In the fall of 1997, he joined the department of electrical and computer engineering at Clemson University, where he became a full Professor in 2001.

2. Lischwe named director of sponsored programs in the Division of Research

Clemson University has named Sheila T. Lischwe director of sponsored programs in the Division of Research. Lischwe joins Clemson from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Mo., where she was director of the Office of Research Development and Services.

“Dr. Lischwe brings experience with implementing operational efficiencies that respect compliance requirements but also ensures that investigator time is focused on pursuit of their scientific and scholarly goals,” said Larry Dooley, Clemson’s interim vice president for research. “She also brings fresh ideas for ways that researchers from different disciplines can link together for unique solutions to address the problems of the day, and has explored ways to expand our pool of sponsors beyond the traditional.”

The Office of Sponsored Programs supports faculty, staff and students in their pursuit of funding for research and scholarly activity, creative activity, instruction and public service while ensuring compliance with federal, university and private-sponsor regulations, terms and conditions. The office’s staff facilitates the administrative review and approval process of proposals, contracts and other agreements.

Lischwe’s arrival strategically positions Clemson for success in a funding environment that demands the ability to anticipate opportunities well in advance of other institutions and respond rapidly and expertly when those opportunities materialize.

Lischwe earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure University, an MBA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and a master’s degree in Urban Affairs and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Saint Louis University. She also held positions in institutional advancement and research administration at Webster University and Southern Illinois University.

3. Staff Development Program application period open through April 16

Clemson’s Staff Development Program (SDP) began accepting applications March 15. The qualifications for the program have been modified to allow more staff to apply – staff members with at least five years of university service can now apply for the program.

The SDP allows for up to 25 staff members to complete 150 hours of professional development, personal development and university involvement/service activities; upon successful completion, participants will receive a permanent base salary increase. The program is one way the university works towards the 2020 Roadmap objective of attracting, retaining and rewarding top people.

Participants work with their supervisors and a mentoring committee to develop a concrete list of goals and a plan on how they will achieve those goals that benefit both themselves and the university. Participants will have approximately 10 months to complete their 150 hours of documented activities. Salary increases for successfully completing the program will take effect in July 2014.

Applications must be turned in by 4:30 p.m. April 16. Participants will be selected by June 3.

For those individuals seeking assistance in the SDP application process, a general help workshops has been scheduled during the application period:

• Tuesday, April 2, noon, Student Senate Chambers.

As space will be limited, admission to these workshops will be on a first-come, first-served basis. As electronic completion of the application form is preferred, workshop leaders will not be able to assist with completion of individual applications. Instead, the sessions will focus on elements that make a strong application to the SDP.

For more information on eligibility requirements and to download an application, go to http://www.clemson.edu/sdp/eligibility.html or email sdp-L@clemson.edu.

4. Creative Inquiry offers invaluable opportunities for faculty and students

by Molly Collins
Media Relations, Class of 2013

The saying goes that “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and Clemson’s Creative Inquiry program is paving the way for unique opportunities for engaged learning and research by challenging the creative minds of faculty and students.

Consider Sean Williams, professor and chair of the English department, who sought to empower college students to change the world through entrepreneurship. Through the Creative Inquiry program, what started as a group assignment in a business writing class became $60 Scholarships, a social enterprise that works to award scholarships to children in impoverished areas of foreign countries and raise awareness about the need for increased educational opportunity. The group has raised enough money to send more than 30 children in Belize to school this year, and they traveled to Belize over spring break to make a formal presentation of the scholarship funds. They also gathered footage and interviews for a documentary pinpointing the educational needs of the children living in the Burial Grounds area.

And $60 Scholarships is just one of more than 300 active Creative Inquiry projects. A small-group learning opportunity, Creative Inquiry pairs teams of students with faculty mentors to address problems that stem from their own curiosity, a professor’s challenge or the world around them. Students spend several semesters developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills while focusing on working in a team and preparing themselves for postgraduate endeavors.

“We want all of our graduates to be thinkers, leaders and entrepreneurs,” said Provost Dori Helms. “We want them to be able to approach a task or problem and figure out how to solve it.”

There is no one way to solve these problems. Creative Inquiries are housed in multiple disciplines, from English and Marketing to Biochemistry and Industrial Engineering, and each project varies in structure.

“There is no formula,” said Barbara Speziale, professor of biological sciences, associate dean of undergraduate studies and director of Creative Inquiry. “Projects come in a lot of different ways. Sometimes a faculty member will think it up, and sometimes students come to us or approach faculty directly.”

It all begins with an idea. In spring 2011, Williams challenged his business writing students to create a scalable business model, pledging support to ideas that proved to be promising.  A group of three students met the challenge with the idea for a social enterprise that would begin by awarding scholarships to children at Unity Primary School in Belize and eventually expand to other countries. It was then that Williams decided to take the Creative Inquiry route, knowing that the funding would help broaden the scope of the project.

“Creative Inquiry was the way to go because of the many resources available,” said Williams. “The funding and other opportunities for exposure and support would allow for a greater expansion of the project.”

When getting started with a project, professors must create a course encompassing their ideas and directions. And when Williams set out to create the course for $60 Scholarships, he not only wanted to focus on starting a business, but he also wanted to use the opportunity to combine the realms of business and liberal arts, a rare move in the college environment.

“You take your business or other courses, but those in no way interact with your liberal arts courses,” said Williams. “In most work environments, however, the two interact almost daily and so the separation is completely false.”

Williams incorporated these principles into a senior seminar that included English and business majors with course work that focused on entrepreneurial narratives, a concept involving the study of narrative techniques and evaluating how entrepreneurs tell the stories of themselves and their businesses.

“I structured the class specifically to force the two to interact: professional questions mixed with liberal arts thinking,” said Williams.

It is this mixture of passion and purpose that Speziale encourages when working with faculty to set up Creative Inquiry projects.

“I tell faculty to seek Creative Inquiry projects that integrate what they are doing in their career,” said Speziale. “It helps them advance their careers, helps students, and engages them all in problem-solving. If the faculty member enjoys and benefits from CI, then students do as well and they will stick with it.”

And it’s sticking with the students. Like $60 Scholarships, Creative Inquiry teams are generating “Aha!” moments through invaluable experiences. Through commitment and curiosity, these students along with their faculty mentors are enhancing the University, the community and the world one idea at a time.

5. Clemson golf course named to “Best You Can Play” list

The Walker Course has again been named to the state’s “30 Best Courses You Can Play” list by the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel for 2013. This is the third time that the course has been included on the bienniel list and for the third consecutive time the course has received the top number of votes for all public access courses in the Upstate region. The Walker Course has been voted Best Public Course in the Upstate for 2009, 2011 and now in 2013.

Named in memory of Clemson alum John E. Walker, Sr., the 18-hole championship golf course is designed to accommodate golfers of all skill levels. Read more about the course here.

The “Best You Can Play” list rates the best golf courses available for public play across the state of South Carolina. The ratings panel is comprised of 125 golf enthusiasts representing a diverse range of occupations, handicaps and backgrounds. The panel’s objective is to promote excellence in the state’s golf course design and operations through competitive ranking, education and public advocacy. The “50 Best” courses (public or private) are selected in even-number years and the “Best Courses You Can Play” are announced in odd-numbered years. Criteria used in the judging include routing, variety, strategy, equity, memorability, aesthetics and experience.

6. Join Clemson Home April 8-11 for free food, prizes and giveaways

University Housing and Dining joined forces during the 2012 spring semester. We are announcing our partnership with our collective brand, Clemson Home, a Division of Student Affairs. This union includes all residential facilities, residential life, housing and dining operations.

As Clemson Home, we believe students are the innovators, leaders and community builders of the future who deserve a supportive and challenging environment in which to thrive.

Throughout this past year we have been working together to develop a future-oriented approach to student learning and development. We will strive to facilitate an innovative and respectful community through purposeful and dynamic staff recruitment, training and evaluative processes.  We will also work to strengthen and develop intentional collaborative partnerships that serve to provide a community of quality and excellence for our students, as we seek to engage and listen to student voices.

When you live, work and dine on campus, you’re always home. From the president, to the librarians, to your resident assistant and graduate community director, to the dining hall chefs, to your professors, to the custodian in your residential area, as well as all faculty and staff, they’re all part of the community that is now Clemson Home.

To celebrate our partnership with the campus, we are hosting a series of events April 8 – 11. We invite all faculty, staff and students to join us to celebrate our one-year anniversary.

• Monday, April 8 – Sustainability and Environmental Day: Sustaining Clemson Home – Check out what Clemson Home is doing to go green by stopping by Lever Beach from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for prizes, food, activities and more.
• Tuesday, April 9– Appreciation Day. Clemson Home appreciates YOU! Drop by at Cox Plaza from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for giveaways, games, and a chance to win free housing and dining for students, or a two-night stay in the Clemson House penthouse for faculty and staff.
• Wednesday, April 10 – Working for Clemson Home. Students: Clemson Home wants to put money in your pocket! Stop by the library bridge from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to see what student employment opportunities are available for the 2013 – 2014 academic year.
• Thursday, April 11 – Campus-wide luncheon! We’re inviting all faculty, staff and students to help us celebrate Clemson Home’s one year anniversary! Join us at the amphitheater from 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. for free food, giveaways, music and more to mix and mingle with everyone from our community.

For questions, contact Ashley Young at young3@clemson.edu.

7. SRASC hosts estate-planning seminar/lunch April 17; registration required

State retiree? TERI participant? Within five years of qualifying for state retirement?

The State Retirees Association of South Carolina (SRASC) invites you to a free presentation on estate planning 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 17 at the Madren Conference Center. Topics will include wills, trusts, medical powers of attorney, and DNRs – what they are and how they are best used.

Recommended by the Public Employee Benefits Authority (PEBA), speaker Charles Verdin, a Greenville attorney, will share his knowledge with no sales pitch for his professional services. SRASC President Wayne Bell also will give an update on legislative issues and latest developments on the State Retirement Investment Commission.

A BBQ plate lunch will be provided at noon at no cost to participants, but seating is limited to registered participants.

Register online at http://www.srasc.org by Thursday, April 11.

8. Summer Camps and Programs abound at Clemson for “Tomorrow’s Tigers”

Clemson’s legacy of service to pre-collegiate youth audiences spans beyond a century, when the first 4-H club programs were organized. It’s a legacy that has evolved with the times, and with consistent emphasis on providing the most physically and emotionally safe environments possible for program participants and facilitators.

Abundant opportunities are available this summer at Clemson for “Tomorrow’s Tigers” — pre-college age youth ranging from kindergarteners to high school seniors. An extensive program line up matches just about every interest imaginable, from daylong and residential athletic camps and rigorous academic programs on campus to an array of recreational summer camps at sites around the state.

For a list of programs and registration information, visit www.clemson.edu/aspire. Or, contact Jacob Repokis, assistant director, Pre-Collegiate Programs Office at wrepoki@clemson.edu or 864-656-5535.

9. PARKING/TRAFFIC: New WeCar added at CU-ICAR

In conjunction with Clemson Parking and Transportation Services, WeCar has added another WeCar car-sharing vehicle (Chevy Volt) at a new location – at the Clemson University ICAR campus. Clemson members still have access to the vehicles already on campus, but this additional location allows another convenient location for WeCar members, providing you with even more flexibility to go where you want, when you want.

• Log in at www.wecar.com using your current member ID and password.
• After logging in, you’ll see the vehicle options for your current program
• To look for vehicles in another program, click the “Change” link under “Check Availability”
• Select the market where you’d like to reserve the vehicle (the new ICAR location is under City of Greenville)
• Continue on with your reservation as normal; rates may vary by program

Each vehicle will still need to be returned to the dedicated parking spot where you picked it up.

For more information about the WeCar program at Clemson visit http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/parking/wecar.html. For WeCar questions, call WeCar at 887-599-3227.

Upcoming events

• June Pilcher: The Mystery of Intention: Some Brain-Based Ideas March 27
• Free China: The Courage To Believe documentary March 28
• Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer: Dr. Julie McEnery (NASA) March 28
• Devising Compositions: A Clemson Department of Art Exhibition through March 29
• A Celebration of Clemson Alumni Entrepreneurs April 2
• 6^th Annual Clemson Literary Festival featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan April 3-6
• Wendy Chun: Networks and digital media April 4
• Designing tomorrow’s workplaces: Coca-Cola 2020 April 5
• Yours Mine Ours exhibition through April 5
• International Festival April 7
  
• Graduate Research & Discover Symposium (GRADS) April 8

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Research: Toward understanding biological functions in a cell: Multi-scale modeling of electrostatic potential in biological systems
2. Frederick M. Cartwright named executive director of CU-ICAR
3. Time to register for summer camp: Fike day camp discount for employees
4. Obituaries

1. Research: Toward understanding biological functions in a cell: Multi-scale modeling of electrostatic potential in biological systems

Currently, computational biophysical science addresses biological questions on various scales and details. Some researchers aim at modeling and understanding how individual molecules, proteins, DNA and RNA, perform their biological function. Such an investigation typically models biological macromolecules as objects made of many atoms connected with chemical bonds. Other researchers focus on revealing the molecular mechanism of large biological assemblies as photosynthetic machinery, respiratory complex and viruses, applying different level of details from atomistic to coarse-grained models. Furthermore, other biophysicists are interested to understand the interactions between different types of cells and tissues, and in such a case the atomistic models are not feasible.

Increasing the scale, one wants to apply biophysical methods to study the function of organs as the heart, lung, kidney and many others, which obviously cannot be done with atomistic models. The question is: how to bridge such diverse scales, since the average size of a protein is about 30 Angstroms (3 nano-meters), while the size of an organ is about 10cm and more (about 10,000,000 larger than an average molecule)?

The most promising approach to the above question is called “multi-scale” method such that the large object and its building blocks (molecules) are investigated with different levels of details. Our efforts in this direction are to provide more robust and efficient computer algorithms and software to allow the computational biophysics community to study biological entities of different sizes, from relatively small macromolecules to viruses.

Our current research utilizes a well-known computer package, the DelPhi package, which was originally developed in Dr. Honig’s lab at Columbia University in New York. The efforts in the lab are directed to modernize Delphi and to make it capable of calculating electrostatic potential and energies of large systems as viruses and mitochondrial complex. This is done by developing parallelized schemes that dramatically reduce the computational time and computer memory requirements.

The uniqueness of our approach is that it employs different techniques depending on the physical nature of the problem, which needs to be parallelized. Thus, we have developed new multi-level (parallelization is achieved at different levels of the algorithm) and interleaved (parallelization is implemented by interleaving the computational tasks) method, the MLIPB method, to parallelize standard methods for computing electrostatics potential and energies in the framework of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation.

The leading scientist in this project, Dr. Chuan Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Biophysics Laboratory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, revisited the existing DelPhi algorithm to group the algorithmic tasks into several distinctive classes depending on the physical process being modeled. This was a very important development because he managed to increase the computational speed of calculations without losing accuracy.

In other words, the parallelized DelPhi is almost 100 times faster than the serial one, while retaining the same accuracy. From point of view of biological applications, this translates into a tool that can mole small and large objects with the same accuracy, allowing viruses and large macromolecular assemblages to be investigated at the atomic level of detail.

The ability of precise modeling of electrostatic potential, energy and forces is crucial for understanding biological processes taking place on various scales. The reason for that is that each atom within a protein, a DNA or a RNA carries electrostatic charge and at the same time the atoms are positioned within very short distances among themselves.

Applying high-school physics formulas, the Coulomb Law of Electrostatics, reveals that the strength of interactions at such distances is greater than any other force. Because of that, our development provides the Biophysics Community with a tool that enables revealing the role of electrostatics in very large systems bridging the gap between understanding the function of individual biological macromolecules and the function of much larger entities made of many proteins, DNAs and RNAs.

Our research is highly relevant to any study involving biological macromolecules, their assemblages and even larger entities. It paves the way of understanding the molecular mechanism associated with various biological functions in the cell and in a long run the role of electrostatics in process occurring in various organs. This is also relevant to revealing the effects of genetic disorders and the corresponding mechanism of the diseases, providing the opportunity the disease effect to be modeled at various scales and details.

Our goal in a long run is to further increase our capability to model even larger objects as components of the cell and the entire cell on level of details which will allow for meaningful biological conclusions to be made. This will be done by “gluing” individual atoms into larger objects, called groups of atoms, which then will make the structure of the large object (for example cellular compartments or the entire cell).

Currently the lab is progressing very well in this direction, the leading researcher being Mr. Nicholas Smith, a graduate student in the lab, who developed a tool called Protein-Nano Object Integrator. This tool allows for generating 3D-objects as multitude of pseudo-atoms and manipulating the objects in real time.

2. Frederick M. Cartwright named executive director of CU-ICAR

A seasoned auto industry executive with more than three decades of experience will lead one of the world’s foremost automotive research campuses into an exciting new era of research and collaboration.

Frederick M. Cartwright, who spent 30 years in the automotive industry with General Motors, has been appointed executive director of the award-winning Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. His appointment is effective April 1.

Cartwright’s extensive experience includes design and development of advanced powertrains for commercial and military vehicles, management of GM’s hybrid bus program and numerous new business-development initiatives involving other auto manufacturers.

Among other executive positions, he previously was vice president for alliances and new business development for General Motors Europe in Rüsselsheim, Germany. Most recently he was director of new business initiatives based in Detroit.

In this role, he was responsible for development of new technology and product-based initiatives, including establishment of multiple alliances. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree from Butler University.

Cartwright’s industry-centric experience will help steer CU-ICAR to a new chapter of growth and excellence, said John Kelly, Clemson University vice president for economic development. He will prove an exciting and valuable member of the team, he said.

“Since opening five years ago, CU-ICAR as become an international model for economic development,” Kelly said. “The campus has an enviable list of transport-related industry partners. With Fred at the helm, those relationships will only strengthen and more are sure to join.

“Fred’s appointment will not only further CU-ICAR’s mission, but help enhance the reputation of Upstate South Carolina as the go-to place for business,” Kelly said.

The campus has garnered more than $250 million in public and private investments and created more than 700 jobs. CU-ICAR boasts 19 campus partners and every year hosts hundreds of guests from around the world.

Cartwright said his focus will be to maintain momentum.

“CU-ICAR has a talented and dedicated team that has positioned the campus as a world leader in transportation research,” Cartwright said. “Its reputation for economic development and automotive research is known far beyond South Carolina’s Upstate.

“Its list of partners, from BMW Manufacturing Co. and Michelin North America Inc. to Sage Automotive Interiors and, most recently, EcoDual Inc., speak to the high regard CU-ICAR’s students, faculty and staff are held. I am eager to start work and excited to become part of such an energetic business community.”

Interim CU-ICAR director John Boyette said Cartwright will make Greenville his home and he quickly will become an asset to the community. The region enjoys a vibrant business climate, which is vital to its success, he said.

“Fred can draw on a wealth of experience from working relationships around the world,” Boyette said. “What he brings to the table will benefit us all.”

3. Time to register for summer camp: Fike day camp discount for employees

http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-recreation/additional_services/camps/

4. Obituaries:

• Thomas Berry “Dick” Tillman, Jr., retiree
  Thomas Berry “Dick” Tillman, Jr., 88, died March 15, 2013. He served as a county extension director for Sumter County for 32 years. Tillman is survived by his son, John D. Tillman, Sr., family and friends. Funeral services were held this morning in the Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home chapel with burial in Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery.Memorials may be made to Pisgah Baptist Church, 8620 Black River Road, Rembert, S.C. 29128, or to the Sumter 4-H Foundation, 2400 Bart Davis Road, Alcolu, S.C. 29001. Online condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals.com.

• Cecil Cook Davis, retiree
  Cecil Cook Davis, 87, died March 18, 2013. He served as a department head and professor of accounting and finance and retired in 1982 with 35 years of service.Davis is survived by his wife, two daughters, family and friends.A graveside service will be held 2 p.m. Thursday in Woodland Cemetery on the campus of Clemson University. The family will greet friends following the service at the cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to:

• First Baptist Church of Clemson, 397 College Ave., Clemson, S.C. 29631;
• Clemson Free Clinic, 1200 Clemson Blvd., Suite 1, Clemson, S.C. 29631;
• Anderson Free Clinic, 414 N. Fant St., Anderson, S.C. 29621;
• Or to the charity of one’s choice.

Condolences may be expressed online at www.robinsonfuneralhomes.com or at Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home.

Upcoming events

• Office of Research Compliance (ORC) Brown Bag Seminar: Biological Safety-How to Perform a Risk Assessment March 26
• Italian Summit Year VI March 27
• June Pilcher: The Mystery of Intention: Some Brain-Based Ideas March 27

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. SC Highway 93 pedestrian safety improvements
2. Research: Robin Kowalski—The art of complaining
3. HR Service Center delivers information in a one-stop experience
4. Clemson participates in Upstate International Month
5. Parking/Transit—closures, towing events and transit service changes for March 14-22
6. CCIT professional development to hold leadership summit presentation

1. SC Highway 93 pedestrian safety improvements: Construction continues with the closure of the merge lane on Highway 93 at Williamson Road

Construction continues along Highway 93 adjacent to Riggs soccer field on the project to improve pedestrian safety. The sidewalk along Highway 93 between College Avenue and Williamson Road is closed. Beginning March 18, the merge lane at Williamson Road will be closed and removed. Motorists and pedestrians should stay clear of barricades and temporary fencing; observe construction signage and avoid this area if possible while work is in progress.

A sketch depicting the project can be viewed at http://media.clemson.edu/facilities/pdf/Capital%20Projects/H12-9892-MJ/Tree%20plan.pdf

For questions related to this project, contact Tommi Jones at tommij@clemson.edu.

2. Research: Robin Kowalski—The art of complaining

Nag…nag. Gripe…gripe. We hear it all the time. People complain about the weather. They gripe about their boss or their co-workers. They are dissatisfied with their home and family life. In fact, if you really listen, people complain so much, you wonder if anyone is ever really happy. But are the people who are complaining truly dissatisfied or are they using complaining as a means of obtaining some other outcome? For years, I’ve been interested in answering these very questions.

Years ago, I myself was complaining (or so I am told) to an academic colleague about the fact that I wanted my own research niche. I was growing a bit tired of continuing to exclusively do research that fell within the expertise of my advisors’ in graduate school. As I “apparently” bemoaned the fact that I had yet to find this niche, the individual I was talking to jokingly said “well, you are such a good complainer, maybe that is what you should investigate.” So, I did. The next day I headed to the library only to discover that this behavior that everyone engages in at least occasionally had been examined in psychological research only one time. My niche had been found.

A million questions were immediately raised, many of which have yet to be empirically studied. What is complaining? Why do people complain? Are there any benefits to complaining? What are the consequences of complaining for the complainer and his/her relationship with others?  Clearly complaining is an expression of dissatisfaction but I realized very quickly that people sometimes complain even when they are not dissatisfied because complaining allows you to achieve either intrapersonal or interpersonal goals. What are some of those goals? Complaining is a wonderful ice breaker that can ease otherwise awkward or unscripted social interactions. See how frequently people complain the next time they have to wait in a doctor’s office and can’t think of anything else to say to the person sitting next to them. Complaining also serves a self-presentational function, allowing us to convey to others that we are discriminating in our tastes. We may, for example, complain about the food or wine at a restaurant to convey to others that we have a very …palate. Complaining may also serve as a way of calling others to account for their behavior. When a husband complains to his wife that she is always late getting home from work, he is expecting her to offer an account for her lateness. Of course, and perhaps most obviously, complaining also allows us to just vent….to get our frustrations off of our chest. When you rant and rave at the driver who just cut you off, he or she can’t hear you. So, it’s highly unlikely that you are going to change their driving behavior. However, you will probably feel better after your rant.

Not everyone, however, complains to the same degree. Some people complain rarely whereas others complain far too frequently. At the extreme is a group of people known as help-rejecting complainers. These are people who play Eric Berne’s game “Why Don’t You….Yes But.” For every complaint that they express, you say “Why Don’t You….” Only to be met with “Yes…but..” You are not going to offer these individuals any solution that they have not already thought of. These people are particularly intriguing to me because they sacrifice relationships with their complaining, so it must serve some other purpose for them. Finding that purpose is a goal of future research. For most people, the best approach to complaining is NOT to complain excessively but to complain in moderation and to be selective in choosing an audience to the complaint. Depending on what you are dissatisfied with, some people are more inclined to want to hear about it than others. Some people are better able to offer solutions than others. Awareness seems to be the key to learning to be able to complain selectively and in moderation. This is also something I’m very much interested in researching. What happens over time as people do become more aware of their complaining. Do they initially express shock at how much they complain and immediately reduce the frequency with which they express dissatisfaction? Do they realize that maybe their approach is wrong and change the manner in which they complain?

What about gender differences. Our research suggests that there are gender differences with women expressing dissatisfaction with their relational partners more than men. But, what does that mean? Does that mean that men are more annoying than women? Probably not. Does it mean that women are more likely to express their dissatisfaction than men. Perhaps. Or, maybe, what men view as complaining, women view as confiding. Only more research will tell.

3. HR Service Center delivers information in a one-stop experience

You have questions and HR has answers.

Need information about human resources (HR) or payroll-related issues? Just visit the HR Service Center. Using self-service and interactive components, this online resource offers accurate, reliable and comprehensive information in one area.

“We want to give our customers a one-stop experience in finding the information that they need,” said Michelle Piekutowski, chief human resources officer. “With the HR Service Center, our customers do not have to spend valuable time and resources searching multiple Web pages to get answers to their questions.”

The HR Service Center is comprised of three components: frequently asked questions (FAQs), Ask-HR and HR Toolkits.

FAQs

FAQs are a self-service tool. They are sorted into audience types, such as faculty, staff and supervisors. These documents are constantly updated with questions that come into the HR Service Center. Within each audience type, there are categories and subcategories, which makes navigating and searching for a question quick and easy.

Ask-HR

Can’t find what you need in the FAQs? Just Ask HR! Ask-HR provides an interactive experience where employees can submit questions online.  The questions are fielded by trained HR representatives who are segmented into teams that deal with specific areas such as benefits, recruitment, payroll and many others.

Once a question is submitted, it is assigned a “ticket” and forwarded electronically to an HR team member who will then follow up with the customer directly.

To ensure that submissions are being addressed in a timely manner, Human Resources has implemented dashboard technology, which tracks the ticket from submission to conclusion.

“This system gives me the opportunity to monitor all Ask-HR requests to ensure that our customers are getting the information they need when they need it,” said John Mueller, director of customer service. “It’s an efficient and reliable process.”

HR toolkits

HR toolkits offer consolidated information on a variety of HR topics and functions.  Presented with the same look and feel, each toolkit includes a step-by-step process and features links to relevant HR forms, policies, related documents and a glossary. HR toolkits are continuously being developed for all audience types, similar to those established for FAQs.

“We are developing a comprehensive assortment of HR toolkits in an easy-to-follow format to help our customers in preparing and processing common HR transactions,” explained Mueller.

Next time you need HR information or service, visit the HR Service Center!

Have an idea about a faculty or staff profile, contact Jackie Todd at jtodd3@clemson.edu.

4. Clemson participates in Upstate International Month

Clemson University has joined Michelin North American and the International Center of the Upstate to celebrate Upstate International Month during the month of March.

A number of events on campus will highlight and celebrate the number of international cultures represented among the residents and businesses of Upstate South Carolina. Many of these cultures are represented on the Clemson campus in the student body, as Clemson has more than 1,400 international students from 81 countries currently enrolled.

Events planned at Clemson for the remainder of the month are:

• Through March 15 –  Lee Hall, Acorn Gallery – New Work by Yuichiro Komatsu Exhibition. Yuichiro Komatsu creates model-like architectural objects and structures of familiar, contemporary, industrial landscapes that explore the fragile nature of our system and infrastructure that is often idealized. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
• Wednesday, March 13, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Hendrix Student Center – 6^th annual Language and International Trade Conference, featuring speakers from international companies such as Disneyland Paris, Dixon Hughes Goodman and Buckeye Technologies. Free and open to the public.
• Thursday, March 14, 8 p.m., Brooks Center – Concert performance by Danu, one of the world’s leading traditional Irish ensembles. Tickets: $20 for adults/$10 for students.
• Friday, March 22, 8 p.m., Garrison Arena – Easy Bend IPRA World Championship Rodeo. Tickets for adults are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. Kids age 13 and under are $5.
• Wednesday, March 27, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Class of 1941 Studio in Daniel Hall – Italian Summit, featuring world-renowned Italian speaker, Giorgio Calcagnini, who will speak on the topic “Labor productivity and competitiveness in Europe and the U.S.” Free and open to the public.
• Tuesday, March 26, 6 p.m., Madren Conference Center – Fulbright Academic Symposium, to recognize the academic contributions of the Fulbright community at Clemson University. Current and former Fulbright recipients will discuss the Fulbright experience and the  value of the global exchange of ideas.
• Thursday, March 28, 7 p.m., Bracket Hall, Room 101 – A Night of Cross-Cultural Education. IREX International Leaders in Education scholars and Clemson faculty will host a panel discussion on the relationship between industry and education and how culture, curriculum, technology, and teacher motivation influence educational outcomes.
• Sunday, April 7, noon – 4 p.m., Bowman Field – International Festival, a celebration of cultural awareness and sharing at Clemson. During the festival, individual volunteers or clubs and organizations represent their home country or state by preparing food to share with others or by providing entertainment. Thousands of students, faculty, staff, and area residents will come out to enjoy food and entertainment.

Upstate International Month is also sponsored by OurUpstateSC.Info and The Greenville Journal.

For more information and a full listing of events around the Upstate, visit http://www.upstateinternational.org/Index.

5. PARKING/TRANSIT – Parking closures, towing events and transit service changes for March 14-22

There are a number of events occurring across campus in the upcoming week. Please note that some of these events may impact your parking routine.

Spring break parking

Please note that all parking regulations are enforced on campus throughout the break. If you have any questions on where you can park, please consult the permit rules found here http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/parking/parkingpermits/permitTypes.html.

Parking at Brooks Center: Towing beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 14

Thursday, March 14, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved starting at 6 p.m. for Patron’s Row parking for the performance of Danú. Any vehicles left in these spaces after 6pm will be subject to tow. For more information about the show please visit http://calendar.clemson.edu/event/dan#.UT97FVeqG1w.

ADA Spaces near Biosystems Research Center closed due to construction

Beginning Sunday, March 17 at 6 p.m., the ADA spaces located adjacent to the Biosystems Research Complex (BRC Building) will be closed due to construction which will address the water problem that occurs when it rains. The spaces will reopen at 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 21.

To view where other ADA spaces may be available, please consult the online parking map at http://www.clemson.edu/campus-life/campus-services/parking/multimedia/pdf/ParkingMap.pdf.

Holiday Transit Service Schedules

CAT begins holiday service schedule on the Red Route Saturday, March 16

CAT will run its Holiday Service Schedule on the Red Route starting on Saturday, March 16. Regular service will resume at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24. For more information, please visit the Clemson Area Transit Web site at www.catbus.com.

No on-campus CAT service March 18 – 22

No on-campus CAT bus services (Orange, Purple, Blue, and Green Routes) will be offered the week of spring break, March 18 – 22. Regular service will resume Monday, March 25 at 7:30 a.m. For more information, please visit the Clemson Area Transit Web site at www.catbus.com.

Abbreviated Research Park Shuttle Hours March 18 – 21 / No Service on March 22

Clemson University Parking and Transportation will be operating abbreviated shuttle hours during spring break between the Hendrix Student Center and the Clemson Research Park in Anderson. The shuttle pick-up times are as follows:

-Hendrix Student Center:    8 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m.

-Research Park:    8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.

6. CCIT professional development to hold leadership summit presentation

When:  Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.

Where:  BellSouth Auditorium, Madren Center

Clemson CCIT is paving the path for leadership and professional development. With Jim Bottum’s support, this group has organized a program to help employee recognition, self-awareness and a unique team building experience. Each program has a project assignment to put their thinking and coaching skills into practice. Effective internal communications is vital to an organization’s health, and its challenges are a continuing topic across Clemson. This team will be presenting their advice about how to best communicate with Clemson audiences.

Upcoming events

• New Work by Yuichiro Komatsu Exhibition Through March 15
• Hai Xiao: Photonic and Microwave Sensors seminar March 15
• Green and Blue Yard Event March 30

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Call for nominations-Centennial Professorship award
2. Sarah Lauro: What everyone should know about zombies
3. Robert Benedict: Moving graduate students from the classroom into the field
4. “Mug Shots” coffee cup reuse program launches this week
5. iROAR: Clemson’s new student information system now available
6. CCIT: Faculty Distance Education Course Design Workshop and other training opportunities
7. Safe Tiger Mug winners
8. Obituary: J. Edwin Faris, retiree
9. Parking/Transit – Parking Closures, Towing Events, and CAT Route Deviations–March 6-13

1. Call for nominations-Centennial Professorship award

The Centennial Professorship is an award bestowed by the Clemson University faculty on an outstanding colleague. The Professorship is supported by an endowment jointly funded by the Clemson University faculty and their friends and a matching grant from the Commission on Higher Education.

The award will be approximately $12,000 per year, which can be used at the recipient’s discretion for a salary supplement, travel, supplies, equipment, and/or graduate student support. The Centennial Professorship is for a non-renewable two-year term.

In keeping with recent historical rotation of the award, nominations of only those faculty from the Colleges of Architecture, Arts & Humanities and Business & Behavioral Science will be accepted for the 2013 Centennial Professorship.

2008 (last award)    2013                        2015
AFLS                            AAH                           E&S
Library                         BBS                           HEHD

All Clemson University regular faculty who are tenured or have a tenure-track appointment are eligible for this award, and will be considered on the basis of demonstrated excellence in their responsibilities, which may include:

• undergraduate and/or graduate teaching
• applied and/or basic research
• public/extension service
• librarianship

Nominations are made by Clemson faculty (faculty may nominate themselves) and must be submitted by Monday, April 1, 2013 to the Faculty Senate Office (mpatte2@clemson.edu). Nominees will then be notified by the Faculty Senate Office and asked to submit their curriculum vitae (following a specific outline) and two letters showing peer support by Wednesday, May 1, 2013. These documents are to be submitted, electronically as one merged pdf document, to the Faculty Senate Office (mpatte2@clemson.edu).

2. Sarah Lauro: What everyone should know about zombies

Zombies are hot right now. Or at least, that’s what people keep saying. As someone who has spent the better part of a decade studying the walking dead, I often get asked why zombies seem to be everywhere in pop culture. Let me take this opportunity to share with you some observations I’ve had of this myth and particularly, why living corpses are still among us.

The most important thing to know about the zombie is that this is a myth that comes to the U.S. by way of the transatlantic slave trade.  It is a myth that has its ancestral origins in Africa, and it solidifies in the Caribbean around the time of the Haitian revolution (1791-1804). It really comes to the American consciousness in the 1930s, after the American occupation of Haiti (1915-1934), in a flurry of pseudo-anthropological texts and the memoirs of the marines who were stationed there, who wrote about “dead men working in the cane fields.” From there the folkloric myth of the zombie is taken up in a few movies, such as Victor Halperin’s 1932 White Zombie, and the rest, is history.

It is important to remember, however, that, at this point the zombie was not a cannibal, nor was it even particularly scary. The zombie didn’t yet want you for your brains, it was just a corpse raised from the dead by a witchdoctor. Under the control of Voodoo powers, the zombie would labor for the witchdoctor, or oungan, for free, and he would claim all the profits from the zombie’s toil. At best, the zombie was a pitiable creature, and it was terrifying not for what he might do to you, but for what he represented: the disempowered, dehumanized human, who had no control over his own actions.

The first wave of zombie movies and zombies in fiction all concern these harmless tropical voodoo zombies. There is a threat is that a white person might become zombified, but there is little or no danger posed by the zombies themselves. For rather obvious reasons, this innocuous zombie commanded the interest of American movie-goers in the 1930s. On the one hand, the zombie’s black body stood for racial prejudices that were strikingly felt in the U.S. at the time; on the other hand, white workers in the U.S., oppressed under the floundering economy of the Depression era, felt a kinship with this disempowered figure.

But just as the zombie is a body that is confiscated by the witchdoctor and put to other uses, so did the zombie’s myth become confiscated by the American film director, and put to work to symbolize not the African’s abduction and enslavement in the colonial outpost (as it had previously) but the white worker’s plight. Therefore I like to say that the zombie is not just a metaphor for slavery, it is a slave metaphor.

Once the zombie was taken up in American cinema, it began to evolve, and over the course of the 20^th century the zombie has suggested the dangers of nuclear technology, space exploration, bioengineering, factory farming, and many other interventions in nature.  A co-editor and I published a scholarly collection of essays precisely on this subject.  It is called Better off Dead: the evolution of the Zombie as Posthuman (Fordham UP: 2011). And in it you will find essays that describe how the zombie goes from being an innocent victim to a contagious cannibal, how they morph from being painfully slow to strong and fast, and you’ll read about a variety of other permutations that the zombie has undergone.

My interest has always been on what the zombie tells us about our own relationship to capitalism. A co-author and I wrote a piece called “A Zombie Manifesto: the non-human condition in the era of advanced capitalism, boundary 2, (Duke University Press) Spring 2008 that has proved to be very popular.  It is not for the faint of heart, but engages with some difficult theoretical material.

More accessible to the zombie novice is a piece I wrote recently for an online journal, called “For the Ethical Treatment of Zombies,” (Incognitum Hactenus: Journal on art, horror, and philosophy, Vol. 3). This article describes what’s at stake when we call someone a zombie, and discusses the gruesome “Miami Zombie Attack” of May 2012.

The book that I am currently writing, while happily serving as a visiting assistant professor here at the English department of Clemson University, “Rise Up: Living Death, Slavery, and Rebellion,” addresses the origins of this myth and its most pivotal transformations, and ends with some discussion of the zombie’s most recent developments, particularly, what I call “extra-textual zombies,” such as the widely popular zombie walks that are held in many cities not only nationally but globally; the uses of images of zombies in protests; and even, Humans vs. Zombies tag, played on many college campuses.  Why do so many people spend time dressing up and acting like zombies in public? Well, it’s complicated, and there are a variety of reasons. Some do it to make visible their dissatisfaction with a government they feel isn’t listening to them or an economic system that makes them brain-dead consumers; some do it as a kind of exercise of community, just to show how the collective can be organized and made to participate in an event without any ties to commercialism; many have no idea why they do it, but some play dead, one supposes, just to feel alive.

A human might not stand a chance against today’s strong, fast zombie hordes, but a tiger might do some damage. So, I’ll just end with this bid: let’s bring Humans vs. Zombies to Clemson!

3. Robert Benedict: Moving graduate students from the classroom into the field

Before making the move to academia, assistant professor Robert Benedict logged 26 years in the private sector, doing everything from managing real estate investments to surveying historic properties to selecting sites for garden apartments.

So when it came time to assemble a group of professionals to mentor and guide students through Clemson’s Master of Real Estate Development program, Benedict — now program director — immediately recognized the value of connecting graduate-level students with the same folks who helped him along the way: folks in the field.

“It’s so rewarding to work with students and to prepare them for the real world,” Benedict explains. Clemson’s program is one of only a handful of graduate real estate development programs in the nation.

“Architects, construction professionals, planners — they all work together,” he says. “I try to have students work on projects with these professionals, too, so when they leave, they have that real-world experience.”

Benedict, as well as his fellow professors who serve the MRED program, accompany students as they travel all over the Southeast visiting current development projects. Called Development Tours, these field visits are now a hallmark of Clemson’s MRED program. They run the gamut — from several-day trips to Atlanta and Charlotte to a two-week minimester on the South Carolina coast, visiting up to 40 developments along the way. Students tour subsidized housing complexes, master-planned communities, resort properties, as well as industrial and mixed-use developments.

Prior to joining Clemson, Benedict was a vice president and partner with Carolina Holdings in Greenville with project management responsibilities for more than $30 million in development, including neighborhood retail, single-tenant retail and infill residential projects. But Benedict’s experience also included historic preservation consultations with public, private and nonprofit groups. He’s written listings for nearly a dozen properties on the National Register of Historic Places including Liberty Hall in Pendleton, Richland Cemetery in Greenville, and the McWhirter House in Jonesville, S.C.

Not surprisingly, one of the experiences Benedict recently offered to his MRED students was also a historic property, and it meant studying redevelopment of the vacant, 1850s-era South Carolina Lunatic Asylum in downtown Columbia. Developers Bob Hughes and Helen Sanders (MRED ’09) invited MRED students to submit redevelopment proposals for the property. The invitation was turned into a semester-long practicum in which teams worked to develop detailed plans for the asylum’s historic buildings and its 165-acre campus. The project required combining detailed site plans, financial analysis and adaptive reuse plans for the historic property. Student proposals included hotel space, residential living, retail and commercial storefronts, and walkable grounds as part of their mock-ups.

“Not every historic property can be preserved as a museum,” says Benedict, who still specializes in the adaptive reuse of historic properties. “That idea is part of what led me to Clemson, and that’s what I try to instill in my students.”

MRED students also receive unprecedented access to more than 30 industry professionals via the Advancement Board for Real Estate Development, which is made up of men and women who, like Benedict’s mentors, represent a broad cross-section of industry specialists — from developers, architects, planning and zoning officials to commercial lenders. They are available to students throughout the program and after graduation.

“They provide an excellent resource in terms of professional experience,” Benedict says. “Advancement board members are very generous with their time and very supportive of our students.”

Ultimately, Benedict explains, real estate is about people. Which is why the advancement board and all of the external support the MRED program has received is so vital.

“This is a relationship business,” he says. “We really strive to make students understand that.”

MRED students also receive unprecedented access to more than 30 industry professionals via the Advancement Board for Real Estate Development, which is made up of men and women who, like Benedict’s mentors, represent a broad cross-section of industry specialists — from developers, architects, planning and zoning officials to commercial lenders. They are available to students throughout the program and after graduation.

“They provide an excellent resource in terms of professional experience,” Benedict says. “Advancement board members are very generous with their time and very supportive of our students.”

Ultimately, Benedict explains, real estate is about people. Which is why the advancement board and all of the external support the MRED program has received is so vital.

“This is a relationship business,” he says. “We really strive to make students understand that.”

4. “Mug Shots” coffee cup reuse program launches this week

Are you a coffee drinker? Do you regularly purchase coffee on campus? Do you use those one-time use coffee cups?

Beware! You could become part of “Mug Shots”! It’s about reducing one-time use containers and reusing a genuinely crafted coffee mug.

If you’re on campus and you are spotted drinking out of one of those throw away, one-time use mugs. With your permission we will frame your “mug” and post it around campus.

You will receive a brand new sustainable coffee cup brought to you by Clemson Dining Services, Undergraduate Student Government, and endorsed by Solid Green.

It’s a great deal. You will:

• Save money on your coffee purchases when you use the reusable cup
• Help keep waste costs down, and
• Do something good for the environment.

So, watch out for “Mug Shots!”

5. iROAR: Clemson’s new student information system now available

The waiting is over. Clemson’s new student information system, iROAR, is now available for students, faculty and staff.  Check out the new iROAR portal at iroar.clemson.edu for a preview and information. There is also a tab link to the new portal located on the right side of the faculty page.

Students will register for fall classes in iROAR so it is important for you to explore the portal structure and become familiar with areas, which you have access to.

While some features within the portal are available to faculty, advisors and staff based on their roles, the course catalog and class schedule are accessible by all.

*Remember: Students cannot register until advisors have cleared them!

6. CCIT: Faculty Distance Education Course Design Workshop and other training opportunities

http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/learning_tech/ccit_training/index.html

7. Safe Tiger Mug winners

February 2013

Sarah Reeves – Student Affairs Business Operations
Patrick Warren – Economics

8. Obituary: J. Edwin Faris, retiree

J. Edwin Faris, 85, of Charlotte, N.C. died Feb. 26, 2013. He served as department chair for agricultural economics and rural sociology and retired from Clemson in 1990 after 18 years of service.

Faris is survived by his wife, four children, family and friends.

Services were held March 2 at Providence Road Church of Christ in Charlotte.

Condolences may be expressed online at http://www.loweneddofuneralhome.com/.

9. Parking/Transit – Parking Closures, Towing Events, and CAT Route Deviations–March 6-13

There are a number of events occurring across campus in the upcoming week. Please note that some of these events may impact your parking routine.

Road Construction on Cherry Rd beginning Tuesday, March 5

For the next few weeks deteriorated concrete will be repaired and curb cuts will be brought into American Disabilities Act (ADA)- compliance along Cherry Road. This work will begin at the Sheep Barn and end near Parkway Drive. During this time, parking spaces and pedestrian access will be periodically closed and reopened in two- to three-day phases as not to disrupt the entire road as work progresses.

No road closures are expected, but please exercise caution going through this area until the work is complete. Please contact Greg Gibbs, ggibbs@clemson.edu, if you have any questions or concerns.

Parking at Brooks Center: Towing beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 7

Thursday, March 7, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved starting at 6 p.m. for Patron’s Row parking for the performance of Creole Choir of Cuba. Any vehicles left in these spaces after 6 p.m. will be subject to tow. For more information about the show, please visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/detail.php?ID=566.

Parking at Brooks Center: White Spaces Reserved Friday, March 8

Friday, March 8, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved in the morning for Freedom Train, a Eskridge Tri-Art Series presentation. The performance begins at 9:30 a.m. and spaces will be released after the performance has begun. For more information, please visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/triart.php.

Aisles 1-3 of C-1 parking lot reserved Friday, March 8 beginning 6 p.m.

The first three aisles of the C-1 parking lot are reserved for the first Residence Hall Associated Drive-In movie from 6 – 11:00 p.m. Friday, March 9. Commuter permit holders are asked to vacate these aisles and refrain from parking in the area by 6 p.m. Friday, March 8. All residents must return to a resident parking space upon completion of the movie.

Aisles 1-3 of C-1 parking lot reserved Saturday, March 9

The first three aisles of the C-1 parking lot are reserved for the Clemson Sports Car Club Autocross from 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 9. Permit holders are asked to vacate these aisles and refrain from parking in the area by 7 p.m. Friday, March 8.

Parking at Brooks Center: Towing beginning at 6pm on Monday, March 11

Monday, March 11, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved starting at 6 p.m. for Patron’s Row parking for the Imani Winds performance. Any vehicles left in these spaces after 6pm will be subject to tow. For more information about the show, please visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/detail.php?ID=600.

Parking at Brooks Center: White Spaces Reserved Tuesday, March 12

Tuesday, March 12, the white spaces in C-11 will be reserved in the morning for Imani Winds, a Eskridge Tri-Art Series presentation. The performance begins at 9:30 a.m. and spaces will be released after the performance has begun. For more information, please visit http://www.clemson.edu/Brooks/events/triart.php.

If you have questions or special needs relating to this notice, please contact Parking and Transportation Services at parking@clemson.edu or 656-2270.

Upcoming events

• Office of Research Compliance (ORC) Brown Bag Seminar: So You Want to Be an Author? Issues in Scientific Authorship March 12
• Doing well by doing good: The new face of global business- Language and International Trade conference March 13
• President’s Commission on Women Outstanding Women Awards and Work Smart workshop March 13

Scroll down to read the following articles:

1. Stepping Up to the Plate: The Role of Research in ConcussionsStepping Up to the Plate: The Role of Research in Concussions
2. Jerry Tessendorf’s water simulation software has major impact on film industry
3. Welcome Mike Gara! Clemson names technology development director at CUBEInC
4. Box: Clemson’s new cloud storage solution
5. Extended through Feb. 28-Call for nominations: Women’s Commission Awards
6. Last call – Staff Senate food drive through Feb. 28
7. Seeking nominations: Safe Driver Award
8. Know outstanding faculty, staff and students? Nominate them for Clemson’s annual spring awards
9. Parking/Transit information
10. Obituaries

1. Stepping Up to the Plate: The Role of Research in Concussions
https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2013/02/22/stepping-up-to-the-plate-the-role-of-research-in-concussions/

If you have not read Concussions and Our Kids: America’s Leading Expert on How to Protect Youth Young Athletes and Keep Sports Safe by Dr. Robert Cantu and Mark Hyman, you absolutely need to.

I assigned this book to my Advanced Sports Communication students at Clemson University and as we discussed this book in class, I was struck by the role that communication plays in the concussion issue, and the need for academics, in particular communication researchers to get more involved. Clearly, the medical research community is leading the way, but I hope to advance some areas that I feel warrant attention and discussion in the concussion conversations that are currently getting little, if any attention.

One of the arguments Cantu and Hyman make in their book is that we, as a society, need to engage in honest dialogue about sports and how to make them safer. It seems to me this is not happening, so why not? My experiences with classroom discussions suggest that we are reluctant to give up the cherished traditions we associate with sports, in particular, football. Why is this so? Is it because our fan identity becomes so important that we rationalize safety issues with statements like “that’s what they signed up for?” We need to ask why we are so resistant to have these discussions? Understanding that will help move much needed dialogue further.

For example, the Sports Legacy Institute issued a press release during the Super Bowl calling for high schools to end full-contact drills during the off-season. This is likely to be a difficult discussion for high school principals and athletic directors to have with parents and coaches, particularly as the chief criticism of this move is that it would skew competitive balance. What kinds of persuasive messages could be constructed to achieve parent support?

The role of the media in the concussion discussion cannot be discounted. There has certainly been an increase in the attention and coverage being given to concussions. However, one of the more notable comments about concussions came from former player Deion Sanders when he asserted during the Super Bowl pre-game that many players involved in the concussion litigation against the NFL are in it for the money and not for health issues. There is debate about how persuasive the media is in changing people’s opinions, but they clearly play a role in what people think about – known as agenda-setting, based on the frequency and positioning of news stories. We need to be paying close attention to how concussions are being talked about in the media, especially, how those who are suing the NFL are framed. Are they portrayed as greedy, as Deion suggests? Or is health and safety being featured?

Parent identity is another very relevant issue here. Many parents are heavily invested in their children’s sporting experiences. There is nothing wrong with this, but it can become detrimental. Dr. Lindsey Mean and Dr. Jeffrey Kassing conducted a research study of parent behavior at sporting events and found that a prominent message enacted by parents was to downplay injuries (e.g., “shake it off”) or my personal favorite, “you still have four fingers.” Certainly there are parents who put their children’s safety first, but clearly there are those who do not. Understanding how parent identity supersedes the health and welfare of their children when playing sports absolutely needs more attention.

Whereas there are parents who do value health and safety, these parents may face difficulty in communicating these issues to coaches, particularly if the coaches are confrontational. Clearly there are parents who have no issues with this, but what about those that do not? What kinds of strategies and messages can be used to help parents feel more confident in approaching coaches and league officials to discuss safety issues? Do tools like the Heads Up app from USA Football help parents feel more confident in both identifying concussions but also addressing them with coaches? These questions need answers!

At the end of the day, people need to realize the concussion issue is not going away. While much of the attention is focused on the collegiate and professional levels, there is a great need to examine what is happening at the youth level. Do parents consider flag football as an alternative? Why or Why Not? Do sports leagues offer any education about concussions and head trauma? Why or Why Not?

The research agenda is lengthy to be sure, but making this research a priority will ensure that scholars are acting in the public interest. Time to get to work!

2. Jerry Tessendorf’s water simulation software has major impact on film industry
https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/faculty/2013/jerry-tessendorf-water-simulation-software-has-major-impact-on-film-industry/

Roll out the red carpet — an Academy Award winner is in town.

If you’ve seen some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster films, chances are that you’ve seen the work of Clemson’s own Jerry Tessendorf. The director of Clemson’s Master of Fine Arts in Digital Production Arts (DPA) program, Tessendorf has made extensive contributions to the film industry with the development of his water simulation software. He received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2008, and his software was used in the 2012 film Life of Pi, winner of the 2013 Academy Award for “Best Visual Effects.”

Tessendorf’s work with this type of software began during his days in the defense contracting industry where he developed tools for creating a natural environment simulation specifically of the ocean.

The tools he developed became widely used in filmmaking. In fact, his software was used in films such as Waterworld, Titanic and Django Unchained.

Tessendorf was introduced to Clemson and its DPA program during his time at Rhythm and Hues, a Los Angeles-based visual effects company, which employs a number of Clemson graduates.

“The DPA program has sent people into the VFX [visual effects] industry for 12 years. At Rhythm and Hues, I worked with many of them, and had lunch with three of the best every day,” he said.

Tessendorf took the helm of Clemson’s DPA program in 2010. Clemson’s program stands out because its curriculum includes two VFX components — art and technology. While most schools focus on one or the other, Clemson prioritizes both.

“The DPA program is unique among digital media programs in the country in producing graduates with the ability to fit into many parts of the production process,” Tessendorf explained. “DPA alumni hold many different technical and creative positions: software developer, pipeline technical director, technical animator, lighter, production manager, matte painter, match mover, FX technical director and more.”

The program’s broad curriculum has produced graduates who find jobs in the entertainment industry’s top visual effects companies.

“The first DPA students graduated in 2001, and were hired by Rhythm and Hues, Industrial Light and Magic, and Pixar,” said Tessendorf. “Every year since then, multiple DPA alumni have been hired into those companies and Sony Imageworks, DreamWorks Animation, Double Negative, Framestore and other companies.”

Currently, more than 50 graduates of the program are employed in the entertainment industry, working on 15 to 25 new feature films per year, making a combined 130 films in the last 12 years. And some of those alumni joined Tessendorf on the visual effects team for Life of Pi.

3. Welcome Mike Gara! Clemson names technology development director at CUBEInC
http://www.clemson.edu/media-relations/4704

Michael J. Gara has been named director of technology development for the Clemson University Biomedical Engineering Innovation Campus (CUBEInC).

Located in Greenville, CUBEInC strives to develop high-impact medical technology and devices for disease management, then oversee the transfer of this technology from bench to bedside.

“Clemson has a long and rich history in medical technology commercialization,” Gara said. “Upstate South Carolina, nationally known for its high quality of life and business-friendly environment, is home to more corporate headquarters than any other region of the state. CUBEInC is a vibrant constituent of these knowledge economies.”

At CUBEInC, clinically driven technology and treatment methods are developed and health system optimization practiced with an aim to help practitioners provide improved health-care delivery.

According to Gara, this facility “stimulates closer collaboration between clinicians and health-care providers from the Greenville Hospital System with Clemson’s engineering and scientific talent. As a result, focused research projects have a meaningful clinical impact and are attractive to the industry and investors as new product opportunities and startup life science companies.”

Employed in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for more than 30 years, Gara has worked for numerous pharmaceutical companies in the areas of research and development, manufacturing, product development and business development. In addition, Gara has managed translational research programs in biomedical engineering at major universities across the United Sates.

Currently, Gara’s position with Clemson University’s life science incubator involves the creation, funding and commercialization of life science companies in Upstate South Carolina.

4. Box: Clemson’s new cloud storage solution
http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/learning_tech/ccit_training/cloud_storage/box/index.html

5. Extended through Feb. 28- Call for nominations: Women’s Commission Awards

Call for nominations: Women’s Commission Awards

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women annually honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improve the status of women. These awards include:

• Outstanding woman academic faculty member
• Outstanding woman classified staff
• Outstanding woman graduate student
• Outstanding woman undergraduate student
• Distinguished contributor
• Thea McCrary Student Award for Outstanding Service, named in honor of the late Thea McCrary, former captain of the Clemson University Police Department and a former chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women

Complete nomination packets for all awards must be submitted to the Women’s Commission office in 603 Strode Tower by 4:30 p.m. Feb. 28.

Honorees will be recognized at a reception March 13.

6. Last call – Staff Senate food drive through Feb. 28

Staff Senate to hold annual food drive Feb. 1-28

The Clemson Staff Senate will hold its annual food drive Feb. 1-28.  Drop your cans, boxes and non-perishable foods at a number of convenient campus locations, including:

• Administrative Services Building
• Barre Hall
• Center for Applied Research
• Clemson House
• Cooper Library
• Eagles Landing
• Fike
• Information Technology Center
• Madren Conference Center
• Poole Agricultural Center
• Redfern
• Sikes Hall
• Tillman Hall
• University Facilities
• University Union

Last year’s food drive raised more than 900 pounds of food. The Golden Harvest Food Bank, serving Pickens, Oconee and Anderson counties, will distribute the food to grateful individuals and families.

For questions, contact Karon Donald at 656-9000.

7. Seeking nominations: Safe Driver Award

Seeking nominations: Safe Driver Award

Nominations are now being accepted for South Carolina’s State Government Safe Driver Award Program, recognizing employees who safely operated state-owned vehicles in 2012.

Nominations for this award are being accepted for the calendar year 2012.

Employees may qualify for a certificate for each calendar year of safe driving, and a lapel pin for each five years of consecutive safe driving.

Each department should select the drivers based on the following criteria:

1. To qualify for the certificate, the employee must have:

• operated state-owned vehicles for the period of one year (calendar year 2012) without a chargeable accident or moving violation.
• completed an approved driver training course within the past three years.

2.    To qualify for the lapel pin, the employee must have:

• operated state-owned vehicles without a chargeable accident or moving violation for a period of five consecutive years
• completed an approved driver training course within the past three years.

This is an ideal opportunity to recognize university employees for the safe operation of vehicles.

Review and submit all candidates for the Safe Driver Award to the risk management office by Friday, March 15. To nominate someone, include the following required information:

• Department name
• Department number
• Employee name
• Employee’s Clemson University Business Systems (CUBS) ID number
• Employee’s number of years of service
• Whether you are nominating for a certificate or lapel pin

An employee may receive a one-year certificate for consecutive years, but lapel pins are awarded only in five-year increments.

Send the required information to Denise Godwin at godwinp@clemson.edu, via mail to E-306 Martin Hall or by fax to 656-4558. Contact Denise Godwin at 656-3365 with any questions.

8. Know outstanding faculty, staff and students? Nominate them for Clemson’s annual spring awards

Know outstanding faculty, staff and students? Nominate them for Clemson’s annual spring awards

It is again time to nominate outstanding and deserving students, faculty, staff and community members for the following university awards.

NON-STUDENT AWARDS

• Frank A. Burtner Advising Award: This award includes an annual cash prize for the adviser of students or student organizations who excels in developing students in the area of leadership, devotion to duty and service.

• Click here to nominate a faculty or staff member for Frank A. Burtner Advising Award. Nominations are due by Friday, March 8.
• Click here to nominate someone for the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Non-Student Award. The form should be returned along with a nomination letter addressed to Dr. Gail A. DiSabatino, vice president for student affairs, who serves as chair for the selection committee. Letters should be no more than three pages in length and must provide evidence of the nominee’s selfless commitment to meritorious service. Nominations are due by Friday, March 8.

• Algernon Sydney Sullivan Non-Student Award: Recipient should have an interest in or be associated with Clemson University and live within the State of South Carolina. This award will be presented when the selection committee brings a qualified and approved candidate forward.

STUDENT AWARDS

• Norris Medal: Given to the best all-around graduating senior student (who graduated in August or December 2012 or will graduate in May 2013). The Norris Medal is considered the most prestigious award given to an undergraduate.
• Matt Locke Award: Awarded to one student for outstanding leadership with regard to service and devotion to mankind and Clemson University.
• Frank A. Burtner Scholarship: Given to a student (rising junior or senior) who displays exemplary leadership qualities and has an outstanding academic record.
• Algernon Sydney Sullivan Student Award: Presented to senior students (one male and one female) for service to campus and community.

Click here to nominate a student for the above award(s). Nominated students will be invited to complete an online application. Students may also directly apply for awards. The submission deadline is Friday, March 8.

For questions, call 864-656-1400.

9. Parking/Transit: Closures tomorrow at Littlejohn and Portion of C-1 closed Saturday

Avenue of Champions closing Thursday at 4 p.m. for basketball

The Avenue of Champions will be closed to traffic and parking in between Centennial Boulevard and Perimeter Road Thursday evening (Feb. 28) at 4 p.m. The road is closing to allow for set up for the men’s basketball game against North Carolina in Littlejohn Coliseum.

CAT buses will continue to operate. However, they will be re-routed and will NOT pick up riders at the Littlejohn tunnel. Riders should board the bus at the corner of Centennial Boulevard and Avenue of Champions, across from the IPTAY offices at Memorial Stadium.

Sikes Parking Lot (E-2) reserved Friday, March 1 after 7 p.m.

The Sikes Parking Lot (E-2) will be reserved from 7 p.m. Friday, March 1 through 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2 for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Quarterfinals occurring Tillman Hall Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m.

10. OBITUARIES:

• Cynthia A. Belcher, retiree
• Frances A. Mauldin, retiree

Upcoming events

• Roots Rock Reggae March 1
• Want to Teach Art? Lecture by Dr. Susan Deaton March 4
• ORC Brown Bag Seminar: Hazardous Waste-Training for Generators March 5
• Philip Ackerman-Leist: Rebuilding the Foodshed: Remapping Our Expectations for the Food We Share March 6
• Pendleton District Gem and Mineral Society (PDGMS) presents “Do You Want to Make a Kaleidoscope?” Materials fee due March 8 for March 19 meeting
• Passport to the Arts March 8
• The Clemson National Print and Drawing Exhibition Now through March 13

Scroll down to read the following articles

1. Win free parking for a year!
2. Research: Warming trends bring earlier migrating Ruby-throats; will flowers and small insects stay in sync?
3. Parking and Transportation: commitment to sustainability brings efficiencies to campus
4. Seeking teams for $100K ACC clean energy challenge
5. Pass it on: Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership opportunities for your students

1. Win free parking for a year! Clemson internal communications survey

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/win-free-parking-for-a-year-clemson-internal-communications-survey/

Are we effectively communicating with you? Are we giving you information that you want and need? Are we using effective channels to provide that information? To help us better understand what information that you want and need from Clemson, please take a few minutes to answer the below questions.

Faculty and staff who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to receive one of two free employee parking placards. The placards are good for one year. Please note that in order for us to move forward with the drawing, we must have at least 800 completed surveys, so encourage your colleagues to participate! Click here to begin the survey

Thanks in advance for your time. Contact Jackie Todd, internal communications director, at jtodd3@clemson.edu with any questions.

2. Research: Warming trends bring earlier migrating Ruby-throats; will flowers and small insects stay in sync?

https://blogs.clemson.edu/discovery/2013/02/15/is-climate-change-affecting-the-migration-of-ruby-throated-hummingbirds/

An almost forgotten, overstuffed file cabinet together with weather station thermometers that had been running since the 1880s, exposed the reality of migrating ruby-throats and the mystery of what they might find in the spring welcome-mat of flowers and small insects.

Warming temperatures have brought earlier flowers, insects, and migratory birds in some places, but the timings vary because different organisms respond to different environmental cues. Local temperatures may be a key factor for some plants and insects but migratory birds are influenced by photoperiod (length of daylight) and conditions where they winter and migrate. One question is how the timing fits together for birds and the services they provide such as pollination or pest insect suppression.

Jason Courter and others evaluated the timing of spring migrations for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds using about 40,000 observations reported by networks of “citizen science” volunteers who contributed from across the eastern U.S where the birds are found. Enter the shabby old file cabinet with historical first-arrival dates (1880–1969), which the North American Bird Phenology Program recognized as a scientific fortune in historical, hand-written, post-card records. More recent arrival dates (2001–2010) came from Journey North, hummingbird.net, and an army of present-day citizen scientists who report their observations each year. The large number of observations allowed comparisons of historical to current arrivals from southern to northern portions of the U.S.

Hummingbirds inspire and fascinate us. They also pollinate about 19 species of plants and consume small insects and spiders. Although weighing only 3-4 grams (less than a nickel), ruby-throats migrate from wintering grounds in Central America to breeding areas in eastern North America, typically flying across the Gulf of Mexico each way.

The research found that Ruby-throats arrived earlier in the more recent period throughout the eastern United States but these advances varied by latitude from 11.4 to 18.2 days, with less pronounced changes in more northern states above about 41°N. At mid to southern locations in their North American breeding grounds, warmer winter and spring temperatures correlated with earlier arrivals in the more recent period. Surprisingly, warmer winters and springs at more northern latitudes correlated with later arrivals in relation to conditions. This fascinating result may indicate extended migratory stopovers below about 40°N during these years. Moreover, ruby-throats seem to be responding more to local weather variables during migration in the recent than in the historical period.

The reason for the delay below about 41 N is unclear but may relate to food or foraging opportunities or effects of winter or spring temperatures on plants or other organisms that ruby-throats rely on. For example, we know that some plants, such as our South Carolina peaches, respond best in spring if they have sufficient winter cold to meet dormancy requirements. Some plants that ruby-throats need may also have winter dormancy requirements. Hummingbirds may also have an innate reluctance to venture into more northern areas too early, even though conditions seem suitable, because unexpected northern cold fronts could affect their survival.

The finding of relatively later arrivals in northern areas when winter and spring conditions were actually warmer, signals potential for mismatches between ruby-throats and the flowers or small insects that they rely on. These results also raise questions about other bird species, especially long-distance migrants, and whether climate trends might over time affect pollination or insect pest suppression services.

We are indebted to the early naturalists who recorded migratory bird arrivals onto cards and sent each one through the mail, eventually to reach that old file cabinet. We are also grateful for today’s observers or citizen scientists who report similar observations unfailingly each year, typically with a computer. The foresight of so many people is becoming a database that will hold stories to come of birds in a changing world.

3. Parking and Transportation: commitment to sustainability brings efficiencies to campus

https://blogs.clemson.edu/creative-services/staff/2013/parking-and-transportation-commitment-to-sustainability-brings-efficiencies-to-campus/

You might have heard about the widely publicized “Bendy Bus,” Clemson Area Transit’s (CAT) new articulated bus that’s the first of its kind in the state. With many of its parts made right here in South Carolina, this American-made vehicle has been widely lauded for its ability to carry 56 percent more riders than our current 40-foot buses, save an average of 18 percent on gas and reduce the congestion along the overcrowded Red Route, which runs between Clemson and Central. No doubt that the bus will contribute to efforts toward sustainability both on and off campus.

But CAT isn’t the only agency interested in sustainability. Clemson’s own Parking and Transportation Services team also has its eye turned toward sustainability and continues to introduce strategies to reduce the carbon footprint on campus.

“We’re charged with reducing demand for vehicles on campus,” said Dan Hofmann, director of Parking and Transportation Services. “The key to our success is improving the transit system. We need to provide more of a convenience to attract riders to buses.”

Toward that end, Hofmann and his team are researching the possible use of a special reduced-price parking placard where drivers can park in a special off-campus area and bike the rest of the way to work.

“We’re going to roll out a pilot program during Sustainability Week where drivers can park at the Campus Beach and use their bikes after that. There is a bike lane that leads from the beach directly to campus,” Hofmann said. “As part of the program, we’ll distribute passes that drivers can use during inclement weather days.”

Along with reducing the carbon footprint, Parking and Transportation Services is charged with enhancing efficiencies in other areas that contribute to sustainability.

Saving Energy

To further reduce carbon emissions, Clemson invested in LED lighting in R-4 parking lot near the Lightsey Bridge apartments. The lighting was fully installed in September and is already realizing some good savings.

The LEDs are controlled remotely, and officials are able to adjust the lighting levels as needed. In fact, during Spring Break, Hofmann’s team reduced the use of lighting from 29 to 13 units and ran the remaining units at 50 percent.

“Because students were off campus, we were able to customize our campus lighting to reduce usage,” said Kat Moreland, senior associate director of Parking and Transportation Services. “It’s the same concept as turning down the lights when you leave the room. You save energy and create efficiency.”

Parking and Transportation Services will continue its use of the lighting and will install LED lights at Sirrine Hall’s (E-4) parking lot as part of a summer paving project.

Using technology

Wasting a lot of gas searching for an open parking meter? Try downloading the Parker app (streetline.com/find-parking/parker-mobile). Available for both iPhone and Android users, this app gives information on open parking spaces and offers drivers step-by-step directions on how to locate those spots. For safety, these directions are available with voice guidance. The app also shares profile information about each lot including parking space types, pricing and payment options.

“As part of a pilot program, we’ve contracted with Streetline, the makers of the Parker app, which is active in the Hendrix Student Center lot at this point,” said Hofmann. “But because of its success, we have plans to expand the Parker system to all metered spaces on campus.”

The parking meter that can communicate
Not too many people would look at a parking meter in awe. But new back-end technology has made parking meters more interesting, even … cool. Parking and Transportation Services has teamed with Parkeon, which offers the myParkfolio Web-based application to monitor campus parking meters.

Using a dashboard, myParkfolio gives Hofmann’s team real-time information on all parking meters. If they malfunction, are low on parking receipt paper, or need to be emptied, Hofmann’s team knows about it immediately and can perform targeted maintenance quicker and more efficiently.

“It used to take our team four hours per day to go to 125 meters three times each week,” explained Hofmann. “This new system helps us reduce emissions and lower labor costs. We’re using technology to enhance sustainability.”

Smarter Costs

An end result is smarter costs. Hofmann’s team knows that the more money you save, the more can be invested in other efficiencies. And through these efforts, energy is being saved and costs are being reduced toward the development and maintenance of a sustainable campus for faculty, staff, students and the community.

“It boils down to dollars and cents,” said Hofmann. “We’re the pass-through, so it’s incumbent upon us to be fiscal watchdogs and be good stewards of the University’s money.”

4. Seeking teams for $100K ACC clean energy challenge

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/seeking-teams-for-100k-acc-clean-energy-challenge/

Clemson University teams are being sought for the $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Teams must submit a business plan with commercialization potential in the clean energy space, including projects related to renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements and advanced fuels/vehicles.

Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and industry personnel can participate on a team.

The winning Clemson University team will advance to the final round April 8-9 at North Carolina State University (NCSU).

The overall winner of the ACC Clean Energy competition will receive a $100,000 prize and compete this summer in the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan finals in Washington, D.C.

Key deadlines:

• March 1 – Executive summary and video pitch due
• March 15 – Winning Clemson team announced
• April 8-9 – Southeastern competition at NCSU

Visit www.accnrg.org for much more information about rules, deadlines, etc. and to enter your team.

Should you decide to enter your team, or if you have questions, contact Douglas Hirt at hirtd@clemson.edu or 656-0822.

5. Pass it on: Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership opportunities for your students

https://blogs.clemson.edu/inside-clemson/inside-news/spiro-institute-for-entrepreneurial-leadership-opportunities-for-your-clemson-students/

SocialLaunchPad
Do you know a student who has made a positive difference socially or environmentally? Encourage them to enter Social LaunchPad by March 1st and they could be eligible for $5,000 in prizes!

All Clemson students can apply for SocialLaunchPad! All they have to do is create a three-slide presentation about the problem they saw, the solution they created and the impact their action had on the problem. Click here for details and guidelines.

Clemson Student Entrepreneur of the Year
Do you know a student-entrepreneur?  Here’s the chance for them to be recognized for their hard work and ingenuity. Students should apply by March 1 for a chance to win up to $1,000 and be recognized at the 2013 Celebration of Clemson Alumni Entrepreneurs! Click here for more information and to download an application.

Upcoming events

• Women’s Commission female staff forum – today at 1 p.m.!
• Walter Hunter Lecture: Women in Leadership Feb. 21
• Eric Masanet: Prospective environmental and economic analysis of next-generation manufacturing technologies Feb. 25
• David Shi: The Pursuit of Happiness: Why is it so Darned Hard?  Feb. 27
• Grow your own shiitake mushrooms workshop Feb. 28
• Secure computer testing and automated grade books using RESPONDUS® AND BLACKBOARD®  March 1