Newsletters
December 2010
Shannon Lynch from Psychology Receives $499,000 Grant
Dr. Shannon Lynch is the Principal Investigator on a new $499,000 grant to Idaho State University from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Affairs, to assess mental illness in women in jail as well as exploring women's pathways to jail. Dr. Lynch will collaborate with investigators at University of South Carolina, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Georgetown University to carry out this innovative research project.
Dr. Lynch is an Associate Professor in Psychology, a licensed Clinical Psychologist, and is currently serving as the interim Chair of the Psychology Department. Dr. Lynch teaches courses in Psychopathology/Abnormal Psychology and Treatment to students in the College of Arts & Letters.
At ISU, Dr. Lynch will work with a team of students to interview 80 to 100 women in Idaho jails about their experiences of mental illness, access to treatment, and trauma exposure to identify possible points of intervention prior to incarceration and treatment needs during incarceration. The research teams will also interview corrections staff members at jails in all four regions to learn about corrections staff members? perspectives regarding their training needs and the effectiveness of current policies for female offenders.
Dr. Lynch has collaborated with ISU students and staff at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center for the past five years, conducting research and supervising clinical graduate students providing treatment to incarcerated women. Dr. Lynch?s research expertise is in violence against women and evaluating the effectiveness of trauma-focused treatments. She also supervises graduate students' who provide therapy to survivors of interpersonal violence and couples, families, and adolescents in the ISU Psychology Clinic.
Anthropology Student Giacobazzi Yanez Meets with Mayan Elders
On October 8, 2010, Giacobazzi Yanez had the privilege to attend a historic event taking place at the United Nations (UN) in New York City. Three Mayan Elders, who represent the Mayan National Council of Elders, came together and addressed the UN for the first time, discussing their prophecies and concerns about the state of our planet.
Among these spiritual leaders was the President and Grand Elder of the Council, Don Alejandro Cirilo Oxlaj, from Guatemala. Also present were Hunbatz Men and Don Pedro Pablo Chuc Pech from the Yucatan Region in Mexico. These esteemed Elders spoke about numerous issues, including how humanity is reaching a pivotal point. This pivotal point coincides with the Mayan long count calendar that ends near December 21, 2012.
Several departments supported Giacobazzi?s trip to the UN, by funding his travel expenses and making this trip possible. In addition, Giacobazzi was granted permission to video tape the events that unfolded in New York City.
Giacobazzi calls this opportunity a life changing experience, providing a unique opportunity to develop valuable skills consistent with his major in anthropology and minor in mass communications. This opportunity of a lifetime broadened his horizons well beyond what a textbook or a classroom setting can offer. Most importantly, he was able to meet and have dialogue with the Elders. In turn, he heeded their wise advice and was able to establish relationships that he can build upon in assisting the global Indigenous community.
Beyond this professional experience, Giacobazzi grew personally. He indicated that the Elders brought to mind how easily we forget our role as humans on Earth and how we need to take responsibility for our actions by treating this world as caretakers, not owners, of the land. Furthermore, Giacobazzi will never forget the words of Don Alejandro, ?We are like flowers of the Earth that come in different colors, sizes, and languages, but like flowers, every petal faces upward to the sun so, we are ONE, l ike the fingers of the hand.
James M. & Sharron E. Rupp Debate Society Performs Well in Tournament
The James M. & Sharon E. Rupp debate society returned a strong showing as a team at a debate tournament held at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on October 16-18, 2010. The team brought home multiple speaker awards and placed in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions. Currently, the program is ranked eighth in the nation, according to the National Coaches? Poll.
Roger Copenhaver was named the top individual speaker in the junior varsity division. Continuing UNLV?s tradition, Roger was awarded a wrestling belt to commemorate his first place finish. Roger and his partner Benjamin Beasley took 5th place in a division of 25 teams from 13 different schools, including New York University, the University of Oklahoma, San Francisco State, UNLV, Binghamton, Cal-State Fullerton, and Pepperdine University, among others.
In the varsity division, Idaho State advanced two teams to the round of 16 single elimination debates. Brian Brantley and Andrew Ridgeway finished as double octofinalists, losing to CSU-Fullerton in the first single elimination debate. Tony Johnson and Matea Ivanovic beat teams from the University of Texas, Austin and The University of California-Berkeley before losing to a team from the University of Wyoming in the quarterfinals. In addition to their 5th place finish, Tony was awarded 6th place speaker in the varsity division. The varsity division featured 79 teams and 158 individual speakers from all over the U.S., including students from Stanford, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Northwestern universities among others.
Assistant coach Scott Odekirk was pleased with the showing as a team. He said, ?Our success this weekend was as a squad. Each of the debaters is working together to ensure the success of the team as a whole.?
Director of Debate, Sarah Partlow Lefevre, stated, ?At the beginning of the year, my goal was for the squad to improve its overall performance. I am incredibly proud of this showing by a team who is really stepping up to the plate.? The team plans to attend tournaments at Harvard University, Whitman College, and Wake Forest University to round out their semester of competition.
Tim Frazier from Mass Communications Works with NASA
A sudden explosion of actinic light threw fractured shadows of nearby buildings across the field separating me from the launch tower. The tall grass bowed to the roar of the first stage of the Terrier-Orion rocket as its slender shape shot into the pre-dawn sky. The exhaust trail corkscrewed in the upper atmosphere then was sharply edge lit by sunlight. The crowd behind me cheered as the first stage dropped away and the second stage fired. Within a minute, the rocket was spent and the capsule with my payload was on its ballistic trajectory into space,? says Tim Frazier, Professor of Mass Communication at Idaho State University.
Frazier had dreamed of launching experiments into space since the headlines of Sputnik and the early "space race". This desire propelled him through engineering school where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in propulsion systems. Although life and a passion for astronomy and fine art tempered his engineering career, Tim Frazier never lost that childhood desire for space flight.
When Professor Frazier read a simple announcement in ISU's weekly online bulletin board asking for volunteers to help with a high altitude balloon launch, he signed up. That was five years ago, and since then Professor Frazier has become the faculty representative for that NASA-sponsored project and has overseen a dozen balloon launches.
The balloon project, called RISE (Research Involving Students in Engineering [and Education]), is an extremely cost-effective way to do high altitude research. Cameras and experimental packages are carried to altitudes in excess of 90,000 feet where conditions are an analog of the Martian surface. This is in a region designated as ?near space? where few experiments are conducted.
Frazier presented the results of these flights at the annual meetings of the Idaho Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) and the national gatherings of NASA supported groups. The photographs have received high praise from NASA for their quality, and Frazier has taught other groups how to install and use digital cameras for their flights. It was through NASA and the ISGC that Professor Frazier was able to acquire funding and assemble a team to design, build, and launch a capsule into space.
One of the most successful balloon borne experiments is an ongoing collaborative project with the ISU Department of Chemistry. Dr. Caryn Evilia is packaging bacteria samples for launch into near space and analyzing their growth rates compared to the ground based control specimens. Her studies are revealing that certain bacteria have the potential to survive inside meteors for extremely long periods of time.
More flights are planned, including collaborative efforts with other universities. A dual launch from Howe, Idaho, with the University of Nevada-Reno was so successful that future cooperative research flights are being discussed. Other Idaho schools receiving ISGC funds have expressed interest in multiple launches from sites across the state with experimental packages streaming data to ground stations in real time.
As I watched the rocket exhaust trail dissipate overhead, there was the rumble of a distant sonic boom as the first stage plunged through the lower atmosphere and splashed into the nearby Atlantic. The second stage and the payload would soon follow. I wondered how the experiments, particularly the bacteria samples, were faring. Later that day the recovery team returned with the capsule, and I ran my hand over its scorched surface. The samples were safe, the equipment worked perfectly, and the data was recovered. With this successful flight, I became eligible to compete for funds to design a satellite to be launched into earth orbit. I began those plans on the flight home,? says Frazier.
If you are interested in participating in the RISE program, contributing an experiment or would like a presentation showing a flight, contact Professor Tim Frazier at fraztimo@isu.edu or Ben Nickell at nickbenj@isu.edu
Professor Tim Frazier has been a faculty member in the Mass Communication Department for 24 years. In addition to his involvement with NASA, he has images in a dozen international art collections, including the Institute of Design in Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Randy Earles from Music Receives ASCAP Award
Dr. Randy Earles is a familiar name to musical audiences in Eastern Idaho because of his performances on trumpet with the Portneuf Brass (ISU faculty brass quintet), the Idaho Falls Symphony, and other ensembles. However, he is also recognized nationally as a composer.
Recently, Dr. Earles was awarded an ASCAPLUS award for his creative contributions to the world of classical music. This is the 14th year that Dr. Earles has received this award, which is granted by a peer review panel from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Instead of honoring a single work, this award recognizes the prestigious value of Earles? entire catalog of compositions.
During the past two years, many Idaho high school bands have performed Earles' Idaho Celebration, which was commissioned by the Idaho Department of Education on behalf of Idaho high schools. One band in central Idaho performed it multiple times as part of their performance tour in California. A band director in northern Idaho told Earles that his students liked the music so much that they played it every day at the start of their rehearsals. The work was given its premiere performance by an All-District band in southern Idaho and was performed later by the ISU Concert Band.
Dr. Earles has written many other works for bands, orchestras, and choirs. His instrumental music has been performed by professional bands in Tokyo and Dallas, military bands from both the U.S. Army and Navy, community bands and orchestras ranging from Twin Falls to Singapore, and college bands and orchestras from around the country. His choral anthem Sing the World Together, on a text by Lisa Horton, was commissioned by the Idaho International Choral Festival and has been sung by the combined choirs at the final performance of each biennial festival since 2004. Foreign choirs from five continents have sung this anthem. In 2009 his most recent choral composition, Te Deum, was performed by the ISU Concert Choir.
He is currently working on a set of musical dances for symphonic band that was inspired by listening to performances of dance suites last year at the ISU Baroque Festival. So far, two of the projected five movements have been completed in draft form.
ISU Hosts 25th Choral Invitational Festival
Dr. Scott Anderson served as organizing coordinator for the 25th ISU Choral Invitational Festival which brought 400 high school singers representing 11 Idaho high schools to our campus on October 22 & 23. Choral groups from Blackfoot, Bonneville, Caldwell, Century, Highland, Hillcrest, Idaho Falls, Madison, Minico, Preston, and Skyline High Schools worked with Guest Conductor Bradley Ellingboe from the University of New Mexico. These choirs, along with the ISU Concert & Chamber Choirs, conducted by Dr. Anderson, and the ISU Women's Choir, conducted by Professor Kathleen Lane, performed in Jensen Hall on the evening of October 23. Dr. Diana Livingston Friedley, Lecturer Geoffrey Friedley, and Professor Lane also worked with the high school singers, presenting vocal master classes on October 22 for each group. Anderson says the ISU Choral Invitational Festival is the single largest recruiting opportunity for the choral/vocal area of the Department of Music.
