| Tuesday, August 20, 2013 |  |
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| Various rankings put Mississippi colleges among cream of the crop | |
 | Students returning to Mississippi universities over the next few weeks will be stepping foot on campuses known for their research priorities, their green initiatives, their bargains and their beauty -- at least according to several rankings that have placed the state's institutions among the best in the nation. Over the last few weeks of summer break, Mississippi schools have been mentioned in several organizations' "best of" lists, a point of pride for the universities and their students. Mississippi State University continued to rank among the nation's top research universities, according to new data from the National Science Foundation, which released its Higher Education Research and Development Survey for fiscal 2011. |
| State Among Top 50 for Humanities | |
 | Frequently recognized for its achievements in science and engineering, Mississippi State is also a top 50 university for the humanities, according to data in a new report from the National Science Foundation. The recently released NSF Higher Education Research and Development Survey for Fiscal Year 2011 places Mississippi State at 49th overall in the humanities among public and private institutions based on $1.7 million in research and development expenditures. "Our faculty includes excellent teachers and researchers who are serving the people of Mississippi through innovative and internationally-recognized research," said Greg Dunaway, dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences. Dunaway's counterpart in the College of Architecture, Art and Design agreed. "Research in our college and its multifaceted research centers is helping to improve communities around the state and well beyond, and it also upholds the highest standards of architecture, art, design and construction," said CAAD's dean, Jim West. |
| College board approves agreement for MSU mixed-use development | |
 | The College Board last week approved a land-use agreement between the developer of the Mill at MSU and Mississippi State University. The agreement, which clears the way for the mixed-use development's parking garage, effectively ends the transactions on the city of Starkville's side. City officials will use an $8 million Community Development Block Grant to pay for the 450-space garage. The city and Mississippi State will split any profits the facility produces. The 1.67 acres on which the garage will be built will be leased to the city for 10 years. At the end of the lease, the city will assume ownership of the property. Mill developer Mark Castleberry told Columbus newspaper the Commercial Dispatch he hopes to break ground on the project this year. That's the same timetable Castleberry used in an interview with the Mississippi Business Journal earlier this year. |
| MSU Eases Campus Parking Crunch | |
| The first day of fall semester at Mississippi State is always busy but it can be even more challenging for those who commute to campus. "We have peaks and valleys during the week. During those peak times, we have our commuter lots that fill up and once those are filled up, we have an overflow area which is around the Humphrey Coliseum and the Sanderson parking area. So if you come in and you find your area full then that would be the place you would need to go," says Mike Harris, MSU's Director of Parking Services & Transit. Harris says peak times are generally on Tuesdays and Thursdays and crowding subsides after Labor Day. |
| All Aboard the Reading Railroad! | |
| Students gathered at East Oktibbeha Elementary Monday for a literacy promotion, called Reading Railroad. The Junior Auxiliary of Starkville is hosting a series of these fun events to show how good reading habits help you make the grade. The different booths featured, coloring, book creation, and story time with players from Mississippi State's baseball team. The MSU Robotics club was also on hand. |
| Student Teachers Get Ready for the Classroom | |
 | Starting Wednesday, this group of students will transition to the role of teacher at one of several local schools. Monday marked the first day of a two day orientation for MSU-Meridian's student teacher interns to give them some final instruction before sending them off for the next 16 weeks. University Supervisor of Student Interns, Sherry Morgan, says it's very important to give them these instructions. "We give them directions on what we expect of them as a student teacher, how they are to go about doing lesson plans, and getting kids ready." |
| Johnson Says Men Needed in Elementary Ed | |
| The elementary education program at MSU-Meridian for the fall semester has 116 students. Of those, only eight are males. Tyrone Johnson is trying to change that trend. He is from Meridian and recently graduated from Meridian Community College. Johnson is starting a community center for children, which will be located in George Reese Court. "Some of the people out there (Air National Guard) are coming to help me remodel the building to get it up to standards for the kids to come out," said Johnson. "I want to have like an afterschool program maybe, like a little program, teaching them discipline and things like that." |
| Rooney Eyes Downtown Meridian Revitalization | |
| Meridian Main Street has a new executive director. The search for a new leader started when John McClure accepted a job as the city's new community development director a couple of months ago. Karen Rooney has been hired to continue the vision of revitalizing the downtown area. She'd like to work with Mississippi State University to create an economic incubator for small business. "I have a plethora of ideas of things I want to do, so I am very excited about it, and I am just really thrilled about the opportunity to do something positive for Meridian," said Rooney. |
| Dalton State Welcomes Several New Faculty Members | |
 | Dalton State College welcomes 15 new faculty members to the campus, according to Dr. Sandra Stone, Vice President for Academic Affairs. "They come to us from different parts of the country, different types of institutions, and different levels of college work experience, yet they all share with us a commitment to quality teaching and a sincere desire to transform the lives of our students," she said. In the School of Business, Dr. Brent Evans, Assistant Professor of Economics, comes to Dalton State from Mississippi State University. He received his doctorate from Mississippi State , where he also served as a lecturer. |
| Mississippi universities voice support for capital money plan | |
 | As they present their annual request for capital spending, leaders of Mississippi's eight public universities say they're pleased with the Legislature's pledge to borrow $100 million a year to cover the schools' needs. The College Board adopted the plan at its meeting Thursday. Each institution adopted 10 top priorities, an amount totaling $634.4 million across the system. Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds said the board knows lawmakers won't contribute the amount needed to cover the total request. However, he said the future map for capital spending laid out in the 2013 bond bill is enough to sustain the universities. "We are happy with $100 million," Bounds said in an interview last week. |
| College Board approves university construction projects | |
| Mississippi's College Board has approved the top 10 construction priorities of the state's universities. Here is the total amount requested from the Legislature by each institution for the top 10, as well as the top two projects from each: Mississippi State University -- Total for top 10 projects: $51 million. Top projects: 1. Addition to Mitchell Memorial Library, $6.8 million; 2. Civil and environmental engineering complex, $14 million. Mississippi State Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine -- Total for top 10 projects: $62.7 million. Top projects: 1. Food science, nutrition and health promotion complex, $20.5 million; 2. Blackjack forest and wildlife research facility, $3.3 million. |
| City tax hike on board agenda | |
 | Starkville aldermen will consider formally issuing intent to raise citizens' ad valorem taxes by 2.78 mils during the board's recess meeting at 5:30 p.m. today at City Hall. By voting this evening to move forward with the tax increase and the city's proposed 2013-14 budget, aldermen will initiate a process that will include public notices and scheduled public hearings, all of which will culminate with the board approving a final budget in mid September. |
| Ed chief: State needs Common Core to compete | |
 | Interim state Superintendent of Education Lynn House said Monday night that Mississippi has adopted the Common Core national academic standards because "we can't compete at the same pace we are going now. It is not working for us." House spoke to about 60 people in the auditorium of Central High School where the state Department of Education is located in the first of a series of meetings designed to provide information on the Common Core standards that are being enacted, starting next year. The next meeting is slated for tonight at 6 p.m. at the Oxford Public Library. At least part of the goal of the statewide meetings is to alleviate some concerns -- at least by some conservative groups -- of the new national standards. House said the standards are national -- adopted by 44 states including the Mississippi Board of Education -- but were not created by the federal government. |
| Mississippi jobless rate falls as labor force dips | |
| Mississippi's unemployment rate fell by a half percentage point to 8.5 percent in July, with a drop in the state's labor force driving a sharp dip. A separate survey showed state employer payrolls fell slightly. Both sets of figures -- adjusted to cancel out normal seasonal changes -- were released Monday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. |
| Barbour, Rendell: Don't expect immigration overhaul until 2014 | |
| Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday predicted that Congress won't pass legislation overhauling the nation's immigration system until next year because it will be consumed with federal budget negotiations this fall. Speaking in downtown Atlanta, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee also predicted the House will pass several immigration bills, unlike the Senate, which passed one comprehensive bill in June. "Immigration reform is not going to be at the front of the stack," Barbour predicted about Congress' focus in the fall. "I do think it will go over into next year." Barbour joined former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, in speaking at a Rotary Club of Atlanta meeting moderated by Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The former governors were also expected to appear Monday before the Essential Economy Council at Georgia Tech. |
| Brunson first African American to lead state medical group | |
| For the first time in its 157-year history, the Mississippi State Medical Association has selected an African-American physician to lead its organization. The association, with nearly 5,000 members, elected Dr. Claude Brunson, senior adviser to the vice chancellor for external affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and professor of anesthesiology, to serve as its president-elect. That means Brunson will become president the same year the nation recognizes the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer. In 1964, the physician in the position Brunson will assume opposed hospital admitting privileges for black physicians. |
| Cyber-disconnect at joint U.S.-China press conference -- Is that a problem? | |
 | The Pentagon has made no secret of its concerns about China's cyberincursions into US networks and of the ways in which these forays complicate the US-China relationship. For this reason, cyberespionage was high on the list of points of "mutual concern" for the two nations, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel noted at a closely-watched joint press conference Monday with his Chinese counterpart. To this end, Mr. Hagel pointed to the recent establishment of a new US-China cyberaffairs working group "as a venue for addressing issues of mutual concern in the area of cyber." But what are the prospects for this working group having much success? |
| Sequestration slashes Head Start funding | |
 | Last year about 1 million of the nation's poorest children got a leg up on school through Head Start, the federal program that helps prepare children up to age five for school. This fall, about 57,000 children will be denied a place in Head Start and Early Head Start as fallout from sequestration. New estimates about the automatic budget cuts were released Monday by the federal government. The cuts have slashed more than $400 million from the federal program's $8 billion budget. Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, said sequestration represented the largest hit to Head Start funding in terms of dollars since the program began in 1965. In Mississippi, an estimated 1,817 children were cut. |
| New year, new direction: President Bennett has 'student-driven' focus at U. of Southern Mississippi | |
 | It's the beginning of a new year at the University of Southern Mississippi, and the emphasis is unmistakably clear. Retention. Progression. Graduation. "Our work this school year is going to be about how we position ourselves to maximize the greatest amount of (state) funding possible," Southern Miss President Rodney Bennett said. "For us, that's going to be retention. It's going to be progression. And it's going to be working to improve graduation rates." The plan starts with a little face-time with the fresh-faced kids making their way on campus for the start of classes Wednesday. During a student convocation Sunday, Bennett urged nearly 1,500 incoming freshmen to make college graduation their chief goal. Then, for good measure, each student received a golden tassel to put on his or her key chain. |
| Jackson State University receives $10.7 million research grant | |
| The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities awarded Jackson State University a $10.7 million grant. The university said the money was awarded to the school's Minority Institutions Center for Environmental Health. The five-year grant will be used to support research on environmental and public health issues affecting vulnerable and under-served communities. |
| U. of Alabama associate professor gets $200,000 grant | |
 | The National Science Foundation has awarded a University of Alabama mathematics associate professor a grant worth about $200,000 to aid his research into the development of software to simulate biochemical reactions within cells. The software being researched by Roger Sidje, a member of the mathematics department and a newly appointed associate dean in UA's College of Arts and Sciences, could allow researchers to analyze biological pathways with computer models. The research could potentially pave the way for new therapies to target diseases, according to a release from UA. |
| Auburn University opens new Recreation and Wellness Center | |
 | The new $72 million dollar Recreation and Wellness Center at Auburn University opened Monday with a packed ribbon-cutting event. The facility boasts 240,000 square feet of modern health and wellness equipment. It has the longest indoor running track in the nation, measuring one-third of a mile in a corkscrew shape suspended above rock climbing walls, various athletic courts and workout rooms. The public got its first look inside the building on Heisman Drive Monday at the grand opening. The facility is the direct result of a student movement in 2009, led by then-Student Government Association President Lauren Hayes. Seventy-four percent of students voted in favor of assessing themselves an increase in activity fees, raising funds to help build the $72 million facility most of them would never use. |
| U. of Florida's 6,400 freshmen convene at O'Dome | |
 | About 10,000 people -- University of Florida freshmen and their families and friends -- filled the O'Connell Center to be officially welcomed by President Bernie Machen, Provost Joe Glover and other officials. If there was a common theme, it was to make the most of the next four years, broaden horizons, make new friends and have new experiences. They were also given advice to go to class, complete their assignments and meet with their professors during office hours. Monday also marked the official beginning of the academic year, with classes scheduled to start on Wednesday. After the convocation, the students, who were grouped by their colleges and schools in the auditorium, left the O'Connell Center for orientation sessions. |
| U. of Florida grad assistants getting 4.4 percent raise | |
| University of Florida's graduate assistants would get a 4.4 percent raise under a tentative agreement reached with administrators, announced Monday. "This is very good for state schools in Florida," said Kelsey Antle, co-president of UF Graduate Assistants United, which represents about 4,000 student teachers and researchers. Graduate assistants also will see a 10 percent increase in their minimum stipend, Antle said, which would put their pay closer to parity with peer institutions. "We have been lagging significantly," she said. The increase would affect about 500 graduate students. |
| Doctoral student works with UGA Obesity Initiative to see how obesity effects work wages | |
 | The idea that obesity leads to health risks is not new information to the public, but the fact that it could result in lower wages in the workplace might be. In his study "Is it better to be overweight in Canada or the United States?," Michael Kofoed, a doctoral student in the Department of Economics at Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, hopes to answer the question: Does obesity influence unemployment and wages and, if so, how much money do obese people lose in a labor market that uses an employer-based health insurance system -- like the one used in the United States -- versus a single-payer system where the government pays for health insurance -- like the one used in Canada. |
| U. of Kentucky professor explores 'The Joy of Pain' in new book | |
 | When a competitive colleague relishes in the failure of another, or a University of Kentucky fan cheers against Duke University's basketball team, both are experiencing the same emotion, but might not be willing to admit it. In German it's called schadenfreude, stemming from two words meaning harm and joy, and everyone feels it at some point, said Richard Smith, author of a new book The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature. In his book, the University of Kentucky psychology professor combines personal experiences with examples from popular culture and history to describe the emotion, its causes and how to control it. "We are self-interested beings," Smith said. "Schadenfreude speaks to the competitive side of us that is out for ourselves." |
| U. of Missouri out-of-state enrollment climbs; overall number is down slightly | |
 | It's not quite a record-breaking year, but the University of Missouri welcomed its second-largest freshman class in history Monday, as well an increased number of out-of-state students. Total enrollment for MU was 34,111, down 144 students from 2012. This year's freshman class is 6,227, a slight decrease from last year's record-breaking class of 6,560. Total out-of-state enrollment increased to 9,961, from 9,337 in 2012. The number of freshmen from out of state rose by one over last fall, to 2,392. Ann Korschgen, vice provost for enrollment management, said this year's out-of-state enrollment is a reflection of the increase over the past several years. Korschgen said universities have increased out-of-state recruiting efforts to combat a decline in graduation rates, as well as to find additional tuition dollars. |
| U. of Missouri students seek to balance life on first day | |
 | University of Missouri sophomore Nick Roberts of Princeton, Mo., spent this summer taking classes for his biological engineering major. "This summer, I'd go to class in the morning, sleep for a few hours afterward, go to work, then come home and hang out with my roommates," Roberts said. "Then I would start on homework and have to work until five or six in the morning." Between school and a social life, Roberts had little time left for a full night's sleep -- he said he averaged only four hours per night. "Balancing my life can be pretty stressful because I don't get enough sleep," he said. A joke among college students is that in college, you can choose only two of the following: good grades, a social life or sleep. With a new school year beginning, many of the estimated 34,111 students at MU this fall will need to decide how to balance those competing elements. |
| Stankowski Field opens for fall semester at U. of Missouri | |
| After three months of construction and some weather delays, the University of Missouri's Stankowski Field reopened Monday afternoon for the fall semester. The field had been closed since May 19, when Mizzou Recreational Services began working on the complex. Refurbishing the surrounding track was the main target of the project, but recreational services also improved the field's fencing, added kick boards for soccer players and resolved drainage problems with updated dirt works. The field could be used on Monday, but Larry Bennett, the senior associate director for recreational services, said a more official opening is set for 3 p.m. Thursday. He called Monday's unveiling a "soft opening." |
| U. of Missouri Libraries partner with national program to expand digital archive | |
| For the past 10 years, University of Missouri Libraries employees have been scanning documents, books and scholarly papers and storing them on a searchable digital archive. A new partnership between the MU Libraries and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance promises to help keep the archive, estimated at 41,000 items, growing. The collection includes plat books from every Missouri county from the 1920s and 1930s, copies of MU's yearbook, "The Savitar," from 1891 and "Mizzou From the Air:1919," a collection of aerial photographs of MU and Columbia. The digital alliance offers grant opportunities to pay for new scanners that can produce higher quality digital images from microfilm and other equipment and the hiring of more employees. |
| Vanderbilt University Medical Center chief explains job cuts, hard choices | |
 | The administration at Vanderbilt University Medical Center plans to cut $250 million from its budget over the next two fiscal years, which could include more than 1,000 jobs, to try to sidestep looming financial pressures. "I think it would be better if we (could) manage this over, say, a five-year period instead of having to do it so quickly," Dr. Jeffrey Balser, Vanderbilt's vice chancellor for health affairs, said in his first public interview following the latest round of jobs cuts at Nashville's largest private employer more than a month ago. Yet despite the speed and extent of the cuts, Balser remains optimistic. |
| More students than ever rely on federal college aid | |
 | Students and families are more willing than ever to borrow to pay for college and increasingly reliant on federal grants and loans to help with tuition bills, statistics released today from the U.S. Education Department show. For the first time, a majority of undergraduates are receiving some kind of federal financial aid -- 57 percent. A higher proportion than ever are taking out loans. But while the federal government gave out more grants for low-income students, colleges continued using their own money on grants for students from wealthier families. That's a trend that concerns some who argue that colleges should do more to help students of limited means. |
| College students say no to costly textbooks | |
 | College students and some of their professors are pushing back against ever-escalating textbook prices that have jumped 82% in the past decade. Growing numbers of faculty are publishing or adopting free or lower-cost course materials online. Students also are getting savvier: 34% this spring reported downloading course content from an unauthorized website, up from 20% in 2010, says a survey released last month by the Book Industry Study Group. Publishers have been able to drive up textbook prices because students "have to buy whatever textbook they've been assigned," says Nicole Allen, a program director for the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition, an alliance of academic libraries. Allen, a longtime advocate for students, sees signs of "a turning point," in part because more teachers are seeking cheaper alternatives. |
| University Pages: LinkedIn Launches New College Profiles | |
 | The professional connections site LinkedIn is launching a new section of its social network Monday: University Pages targets younger users who want to connect with colleges. More than 200 schools now have profile pages, according to LinkedIn. As part of the new effort, the company also dropped its minimum age to 14 in the U.S. The new college profiles allow prospective students to see how many of a school's graduates are on LinkedIn, as well as a breakdown of the main fields in which they work. The pages also list the top employers of alumni. Christina Allen, LinkedIn's director of product management, says the idea for the pages came after she saw her daughter and others struggle to find usable information on colleges. |
| Biden, Obama planning 'fun' college tour | |
 | Vice President Biden will join President Obama for the Scranton, Pa., leg of a "fun and informative" bus tour on college costs, the White House said Monday. Spokesman Josh Earnest said that the president would discuss how to "reign in the skyrocketing costs of a college education." "It is going to be hopefully both fun and informative," Earnest told reporters at the daily press briefing. "The president does plan to have some new proposals that he's going to be talking about." When Earnest was pressed what specifically would be "fun" about the college tour -- which will also swing through New York with stops in Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghamton -- he said that he didn't expect the president to swing by any fraternity parties. |
| Beloit releases annual 'mindset' list -- and two professors try to kill it | |
 | Beloit College's "Mindset List" has become a rite of fall. Each list (such as the one being released today) offers examples of things that an 18-year-old arriving on campus would and would not have experienced. Names of some people who were significant to their parents' generation (this year Dean Martin and Jerry Garcia, among others) have "always been dead." In theory, professors and administrators get a reminder not to assume that the new students on campus share their cultural and historic signposts. For Beloit, the list has been public relations gold. Some bloggers have challenged the list. An Inside Higher Ed blogger, Kenneth C. Green, wondered in 2010 whether the list contributes to the sense of many faculty members that today's students somehow know less than did previous generations, a common -- if not necessarily verified -- lament whose reinforcement may not be a good thing for anyone. This year two anonymous professors -- one from a large public university and the other from a community college -- have declared their intent to destroy the list. |
| The Compromised Life of Common-Reading Programs | Peter Wood (Opinion) | |
 | Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education: "More than 300 colleges and universities in the United States now assign a single book to incoming freshmen to read over the summer; sometimes all students are required to do the reading. These assignments aren't for academic credit. Rather, they are promoted as a way of building 'community,' emphasizing 'values,' and giving students some shared reference points beyond music and movies. For the last three years, the National Association of Scholars has been tracking who reads what. As it happens, according to its report Beach Books: 2012-2013: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?, last year 31 of these programs (one in 10) picked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for its common reading." |
SPORTS
| Super Bulldog Weekend set for April 11-13 | |
| Mississippi State's annual Super Bulldog Weekend is set for April 11-13 of next year and will feature a baseball series against its arch-rival. The school announced the dates Monday. The annual Maroon-White spring football game will be held on Saturday, April 12. Also taking place that weekend is a three-game SEC baseball series at Dudy Noble Field against Ole Miss. MSU is coming off a season in which it reached the finals of the College World Series. Other highlights of the weekend include softball and tennis events, along with the annual pig cooking contest and Fan Fair. |
| Mississippi State D-line must work together | |
| Mississippi State found trouble generating an effective pass rush last season. The Bulldogs finished the season with 19. In comparison, former Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones finished with 14½ himself last year. But guys like Jones are the exception, not the rule in MSU's system. "We try to teach and make sure guys understand it's not all about one guy. It's four guys," Mississippi State defensive line coach David Turner said. "If we're in our base front, four guys have to work together to rush the quarterback." |
| Revved-up crowd greets Ole Miss' Bjork | |
 | Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork surveyed a capacity crowd at a Gulfport restaurant Monday evening and said he hopes that Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will similarly be filled to overflowing this fall for Rebel football games. "This is a great turnout," he said of the audience of nearly 200 at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Ole Miss Club annual meeting. Bjork said the athletic department budget for this year is about $70 million, up from $62.5 million last year. He said that growth is positive, but it still ranks Ole Miss about 11th or so in the SEC. |
| G. Rollie White demolition starts to make room for A&M's Kyle Field renovation | |
 | The tan bricks that crumbled off of Texas A&M's G. Rollie White Coliseum marked the end of a campus landmark and the beginning of Kyle Field renovations. A little before noon Monday, a construction vehicle begin to peel off the brick facade on the top floor of the 59-year-old gymnasium that housed A&M volleyball and the A&M Letterman's Association. The building was home to graduations, concerts and athletic events. Three to four dozen spectators gathered to watch the beginning of the slow demolition that will stretch into September. As the rubble crashed to the ground, students, faculty and staff members stopped to take it in, and parents, many of whom were in town for freshman orientations, reminisced about the building. |
| Lady Vols official who sued U. of Tennessee retires early | |
| Jenny Moshak has retired as Tennessee's associate director of sports medicine, less than a year after she filed a lawsuit against the university for discrimination and retaliation. "Due to the overall atmosphere since I raised issues of equality at the University of Tennessee and given the university's unwillingness to address the issues of discrimination and retaliation, I cannot continue my association with the university's athletic department," Moshak said in a statement released Friday by her lawyer, Keith D. Stewart. Moshak also said in the statement that she took early retirement effective Thursday. Tennessee athletic department spokesman Jimmy Stanton confirmed Moshak's retirement but declined any further comment. |
| Montgomery unveils Alabama's 3rd college bowl, inaugural game set for December 2014 | |
 | City leaders joined with ESPN officials and college football conference executives Monday afternoon to announce plans for a new six-year bowl game in Montgomery. The new ESPN-owned 'Camellia Bowl' -- the third of its type in Alabama -- will pair the Sun Belt against the Mid-American Conference. The inaugural post-season game is set for December 2014 at the heavily-renovated Cramton Bowl, most likely a few days before Christmas, ESPN Senior Vice President and General Manager Pete Derzis said shortly after the bowl announcement in the Montgomery city council chambers. |
| Instead of telling athletes not to tweet, Colgate shows how social media can work for them | |
| While some colleges unrealistically forbid athletes from using social media in certain ways or at all (or ignore the topic altogether), Colgate encourages students to use platforms often, in positive, self-promoting ways. "Saying 'don't use it' is not going to work," said Matt Hames, manager of media communications at Colgate. "The really scary thing to a lot of people is now a 17-year-old kid has a device in their hand where they can say anything at any time. You just nudge them in a direction where they think about it a different way." |
| Concussions on the Field, Repercussions in School | |
 | The latest question for researchers studying the consequences of concussions isn't when student-athletes can safely get back in the game. It's how long to wait before they can return to class. New research suggests concussion effects may linger weeks after symptoms of dizziness and headaches have disappeared. School-safety experts are focusing attention on the impact of concussions on classroom performance. A small study of 28 patients by New York University researchers published earlier this year in the journal Radiology found that brain changes could be detected up to a year after even one mild concussion. Brain-injury specialists say the mental exertion of normal classwork could even worsen the effects of a concussion. The harder students recovering from a concussion try to focus on any mental activity, the more severe their headaches or dizziness may become. |
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