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APRIL 2016 / VOL. 27, NO.3
Where do I go for advice Where do I go for career advice
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Finding Avocation, p. 6
The Road Not Taken, p. 12
System Eect, p. 20
USC TIMES / STAFF
USC Times is published 10 times a year for the faculty and staff of the University of South Carolina by the Office of Communications & Marketing.
FROM THE EDITOR
ADVICE & CONTENT
Managing editor Craig Brandhorst Creative Director Bob Wertz Designers Brandi Lariscy Avant Brinnan Wimberly Contributors Chris Horn Page Ivey Liz McCarthy Steven Powell Dan Cook Photographers Kim Truett Ambyr Goff Printer USC Printing Services Campus correspondents Patti McGrath, Aiken Cortney Easterling, Greenville Shana Dry, Lancaster Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie Misty Hatfield, Sumter Annie Smith, Union Tammy Whaley, Upstate Jay Darby, Palmetto College Submissions Did you know you can submit ideas for future issues of USC Times? Share your story by emailing or calling Craig Brandhorst at craigb1@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3681.
Need some help with a big decision? Need some help helping others with a big decision? Need some help helping others help themselves help others help — ? OK, we can’t help you there. In fact, we can’t help you with any of that stuff, at least not directly. USC Times isn’t in the advice business. We are, however, in the reporting business, and this month we went looking for advice about advice with the goal of reporting back. And our first stop, naturally, was the University Advisement Center, where director Claire Robinson and her staff answered all of our major questions, a few minor ones, and one or two others we didn’t even know we had. “Good Advice” begins on page 2. And it doesn’t end there. Considering the fact that three-quarters of college students today change their majors at least once during their undergraduate careers, we also went looking for folks who could relate — and we found plenty. Our collection of narratives by faculty and staff now working in disciplines seemingly unrelated to their declared undergraduate majors took us from a Midwestern cornfield to a philosopher’s office at Oxford to a middle school band room in western New York before converging right here on the campus of USC. “The Road Not Taken” (page 12) is a testament to many things, but chiefly to the experience and perspective we offer, whether we’re counseling students, conversing with colleagues or simply sharing our stories with the readers of USC Times. Finally, lest you think this whole issue is about majors, minors and helping students settle on that all-important major or career, we’ve also included a photo essay, “Finding Avocation” (page 6), about the things we enjoy doing when we’re not at the day job. Hurry, though — the pastries go quick. So there you go. Th row in an installment of Breakthrough Breakout about putting your skillset to extracurricular advantage (page 18), and the latest System Effect spotlight, this time on the statewide impact of USC Aiken (page 20), and you should have plenty of options. Heck, maybe we’re in the advice business after all — the advice, as always, being to turn the page and read. Take heed,
CRAIG BRANDHORST MANAGING EDITOR
The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation or veteran status.
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TIMES FIVE
NOW SHOWING WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO Ever questioned the lasting influence of William Shakespeare? The famous playwright has been credited with introducing more than 1,700 new words to the English lexicon, plus plenty of quotable phrases, most of which can be found in a single book: “Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.” An original edition of that book, now referred to simply as the First Folio, is touring the country courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library and will be exhibited at USC’s Ernest F. Hollings Library April 14 – 30. “Much Ado About Shakespeare,” a companion exhibit drawn from university collections, will be on display alongside the First Folio at the Hollings Library. Additional Shakespeare-themed events are scheduled this month as well, including USC productions of Shakespeare’s final play, “The Tempest,” and an original dramatic work, “The Gravedigger’s Tale,” conceived by Robert Richmond, associate director of theater. For more information and a full calendar of events visit http://library.sc.edu/p/ firstfolio.
GET THEE TO DISCOVERY DAY Discovery Day showcases student experiences in and out of the classroom on topics relating to research, study abroad, leadership, community service and internships. Students will present their experiences and findings through creative posters or oral presentations. This year’s event is Friday, April 22 in the Russell House and is open to the entire university community.
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY, THAT IS THE WEBINAR University employees have access to monthly webinars provided through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Webinars are based on different personal wellness themes each month. The next webinar launches April 19 and will provide useful information on the advantages and disadvantages of home ownership. Webinars can be accessed through the EAP’s website by using the username and password “USC.”
THE NOVEL’S THE THING The Open Book literary series continues through April 20. Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences since 2012, the five-week series features a lecture each Monday by host and creative writing professor Elise Blackwell followed by a 6 p.m. Wednesday appearance by a different visiting author. Guests this year include Nuruddin Faraha, Jenny Offill, Anthony Doerr, Celeste Ng and Paul Auster. All other author talks will be held in the program room of the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library. To register for a session and learn more about the authors, visit artsandsciences.sc.edu/theopenbook.
ALL THE WORLD’S A CLASSROOM The Study Abroad Office is offering two workshops this month for faculty and staff interested in developing short- or long-term study abroad programs or helping study abroad students with academic advising. Workshops will be held April 11 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and April 12 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Both sessions will be held in Close-Hipp 650A.
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REVAMPED ADVISEMENT PROCESS HELPS STUDENTS FIND THEIR WAY
GOOD ADVICE BY DAN COOK
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POP QUIZ: How many times does an average undergraduate
change majors? If you answered “one” or “two,” you might be thinking of your own experience years, even decades ago. Today, roughly three-quarters of students change their major at least once — and many change three to five times. Yes, really. Given that reality, it’s more important than ever for universities to help students navigate the advisement process. That’s exactly what the University of South Carolina is doing at the University Advising Center, which opened in July in the Close-Hipp Building. Part of a university-wide change in advisement philosophy, the standardized process focuses particularly on first-year students, transfer students, change-of-major students and students seen as at-risk due to a variety of factors. The larger goal is to improve retention and on-time graduation rates. Compared to national averages, USC is already doing quite well on both fronts. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 87 percent of students at the Columbia campus return after their first year (compared to 67 percent nationally), and the campus has a 73 percent graduation rate (compared to a national average of 43 percent). But the goal is to do even better. “The Board of Trustees has charged USC with getting from an 87 percent first-to-second year retention rate to a 90 percent rate,” says Claire Robinson, director of the Advising Center. The plan includes the hiring of new first-year advisers; standardized adviser training; lower adviser-to-student ratios; new technology to help advisers make sense of students’ records; longer advisement sessions; and an emphasis on encouraging student responsibility for their own academic and career development. “Our goal is to help retain students and help them move into their sophomore year,” Robinson says. “And to reduce time to degree — advising students to make intentional choices about major changes and major selection.” SURVEY SAYS?
Last year, the university released a report, “Re-envisioning Academic Advising at the University of South Carolina,” which found wide variation in the advisement process. Some colleges had as many as 800 students for every adviser. That’s compared to a 300-to-1 level recommended by the National Academic Advising Association. As part of that report, researchers conducted a campus-wide survey. “We asked our 12 colleges and schools, ‘How do you currently advise students?’” recalls Robinson, who earned her Ph.D. in higher
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Mary Katherine Robinson, adviser.
education administration from USC. “We saw that some had a complete faculty model; others had a complete staff model, with a centralized advising office in their college, like the School of Business does. Then we found everything in between.” The same survey found that adviser training varied widely, with 30 percent saying they didn’t feel well trained for the role. Most sessions lasted 15 minutes or less, and most students had only met with their adviser once per semester. “The survey revealed that all 12 colleges and schools handle advising differently,” Robinson says. “And it’s confusing for a student who is leaving one college and entering another. The student’s experience and expectations are very different because you got advised in one way in School A and another way in School B.” As for students’ perceptions of advisement at USC, 67 percent reported being satisfied — but that left 33 percent who weren’t. A WORLD TO EXPLORE
Collin Stout, a major change adviser at the University Advising Center, changed his major five times as an undergraduate at New York’s College at Brockport. “I changed it way too
many times,” he laughs — but that experience, while not unique, does give Stout an empathetic ear. “I try to build a rapport, get to know them, ask questions about classes they have really enjoyed and what kinds of things they are involved in, what they wanted to do when they were in high school, what their dream job is,” Stout says. “If they think their dream job is not possible — well, maybe there are some avenues to get there.” According to a 2012 New York Times article, there are several reasons why students change majors so often, including an explosion in the number of programs offered and concerns about which majors will prove to be viable and lucrative. “We see a lot of major exploration: ‘I’m not really sure what I want to do,’” says Mary Katherine Robinson, a major change and transfer adviser at the Advising Center. “Either they came in with an undecided major, or they know that they don’t want to do the major they’re in, but they’re not sure what they do want to do. We work through what their interests are, what their strengths are, what their skills are.” That’s where the Advising Center’s close relationship with the Career Center (see oppo-
site page) comes in. Oftentimes when a student is contemplating a change in major, the Advising Center will refer the student to the Career Center for further exploration. TARGET SUCCESS
Students who change majors are not the Advising Center’s sole focus. Much of the shift is aimed at first-year students (more than 5,000 each year), transfer students (approximately 2,100 per year) and at-risk students (those on academic probation, etc.). Whether they’re coming to the university as true freshmen or as transfer students, Advising Center Director Robinson says she wants the university to provide “a seamless advising experience.” One tool in creating that seamless process is a new software system developed by the Education Advisory Board. The software gives advisers easy-to-access information about each advisee — such as risk scores based on student records. “It provides a quick, at-a-glance snapshot of some of the most important information that an adviser needs — like how many times did a student withdraw from a class, or if they have missed what’s called a ‘success marker course,’
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Claire Robinson, director of the Advising Center.
where we know that a certain grade threshold predicts their level of success in that particular major,” Robinson says. It’s a big change from the past, when an adviser would pull a student’s transcripts and try to search for meaningful patterns. COMMON STANDARDS
While the Advising Center focuses on specific areas — students changing majors, transfer students, academic coaching, etc. — regular academic advisement will still happen in the student’s college or school. The difference is that students will meet with advisers who have been trained to a common set of standards. With the hiring of new advisers, the goal is a 300-to-1 adviser-to-student ratio. “A first-year engineering student will get advised in Swearingen, in the College of Engineering and Computing,” Robinson says. “The first-year advisers have a standard set of expectations, training, technology and resources — all the things the Advising Center coordinates — but the advising still happens in the departments.”
First-year students will get special attention. To help facilitate that, USC is hiring 25 advisers specifically dedicated to them. Most will work within specific colleges and schools, while several work in the Advising Center. “This is the newest, biggest, hot-off-thepress thing for our university,” Robinson says. “We have hired 15 of the 25 already. The hope is to get the remaining 10 here by May 2.” Despite being a new office, the center has received national attention. “I am constantly contacted by other universities interested in using our advising initiative as a model,” Robinson says. One of the new first-year advisers is Drew Savage, who is working toward a master’s in higher education administration at USC. Savage speaks passionately about connecting with advisees, some of whom he meets initially through the University 101 course he teaches. “I know what it’s like to be a first-year student — to be lost on campus,” he says. “I want to create an environment where they can tell me what’s wrong.” But Savage is also interested in the additional potential of advising software. “I am a data nerd — I love statistics,” he says, calling the challenge of improving retention rates “an incredible opportunity.” Human interaction informed by the latest technology — that’s exactly what Robinson wants the new center to provide. “There’s an art and science to great advising,” she says. “The science is you’ve got to know all the curricular requirements, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, etc. Then there’s the art: How do you translate all this information in a meeting with a student, such as the type of questions advisors ask, the points emphasized, knowing that each student has a unique story.” T
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CAREER CENTER — GO EARLY, GO OFTEN If there’s one thing Tom Halasz wants students to know about the Career Center, it’s that it exists for them — and they should use it early and often. “We want to see them so often that someone knows their name,” says Halasz, director of the center since 2008. Located at Thomas Cooper Library, the Career Center serves students at every level of their academic careers, from freshmen to Ph.D. candidates; even alumni can get help. Between last July and March 1, the center had contact with 8,299 students a total of 19,946 times. Many of the students coming through are referred there by the University Advising Center or by advisers in individual schools and colleges. The Career Center also organizes job fairs and conducts outreach to faculty and staff to make sure they’re aware of the resources that are available. The services offered cover every aspect of a student’s trajectory — from deciding which major to pursue to searching for internships and, eventually, full-time employment. Ultimately, Halasz wants students to engage in planning their own futures, which is why the center uses an Employability Model to help them understand the full range of planning, skills, personal relationships, emotional intelligence — and experience — they’ll need to navigate the workplace. “We try to emphasize experience,” Halasz says. “It’s the big differentiator between somewhat successful students and very successful students. If they have had multiple experiences, they make better decisions and they are more successful.”
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FINDING AVOCATION YOU CAN LOVE YOUR DAY JOB AND STILL FIND ROOM FOR OTHER EQUALLY REWARDING PURSUITS. FROM BAKING TO KNITTING TO JUST PLAIN CLOWNING AROUND, USC FACULTY AND STAFF FIND CREATIVE WAYS TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES AND BLOW OFF STEAM WHEN THE WORKDAY’S DONE. BY CRAIG BRANDHORST, CHRIS HORN & PAGE IVEY
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ECLAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW TRAVIS WEATHERFORD Senior immigration information adviser / Office of International Support for Faculty and Staff
Croissants, turnovers, Danish, brioche — If you’ve ever sampled a Friday morning pastry at local coffeeand-sandwich shop Immaculate Consumption, you know the work of Travis Weatherford, who gets up before the sun most Fridays to bake breakfast for the lucky few who beat the morning rush. By the time you take that first buttery bite, though, Weatherford is already behind his desk on the seventh floor of Byrnes, where he works as a senior immigration information adviser in the office of International Support for Faculty and Staff. “It’s good to do something physical and make something tangible,” says Weatherford, who graduated from USC’s Honors College with a degree in philosophy in 1993, and later from the Culinary Institute of America. “Doing something completely different from your day job is good for the spirit, and baking is just a beautiful tradition.” Weatherford also appreciates the ephemeral nature of baking, which allows for failure and redemption in equal measure. “I like making things, but I also like that they go away,” he explains with a self-deprecatory laugh. “I could take up needlepoint, but my house would be littered with inept, hideous constructions that I would be too sentimentally attached to to throw away — whereas an éclair is going to perish regardless, whether it gets eaten or not.” In addition to the informal Friday morning Immaculate Consumption gig — which he’s done off and on since 2001 — Weatherford also teaches evening baking courses through the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management’s Culinary Institute Certification program, as well as Saturday Chef du Jour classes.
After pulling an eight-hour shift at the office — not to mention prepping dough for those highlysought Friday pastries — teaching may sound like a lot of extra work, and it is. According to Weatherford, though, sharing his knowledge of baking with others provides a deeper sort of satisfaction. “In my last class, there was a guy who had never made a cake before. He produced this beautiful angel food cake, and you could see he was just so delighted by it, and I was, too,” says Weatherford. “I remember how happy I was after my own series of failures at making a cake, when I actually got one to come out of the oven that looked and tasted wonderful. Now, I’m just living vicariously through them.”
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ICING THE CAKE CLAUDIA CARRIERE Undergraduate administrative assistant / Department of Anthropology
Like many college students, Claudia Carriere changed majors as an undergrad. Not many college students, however, go from magic to clowning. “It was the first college I ever graduated from,” says Carriere, who attended a northern Virginia college dedicated to magic and clowning before receiving a bachelor’s in anthropology and history from USC in 2000.
relaxing. I bake almost every day, usually four or five different things at a time.”
Now undergraduate coordinator for the anthropology department, Carriere does more baking than clowning around, but the avocational spirit remains — it’s the sidelines, she says, that keep her sane.
Once, Carriere even made a cake in the likeness of one of the professors in her office. “He kept his head in the freezer for like a year,” she says. “His wife let me know about that.”
“I started baking in the 1970s, doing cakes as my birthday gifts to family members,” she says. “Then I got into cookie construction and chocolatiering.” She built whole holiday cities with cookies, as well as carousels and trains. “I have always found it very
Nowadays, Carriere’s specialty is Mexican chocolate braided bread — think cayenne in the chocolate — but as an homage to her past life, she cranked out the clown cake pictured. For obvious reasons, her co-workers enjoy her hobby as much as she does.
A TURN AT BAT KENNY EDWARDS Information resource consultant / Division of Information Technology
Kenny Edwards started taking art courses at USC for fun in 1998 — photography, then drawing, painting and art history, and after that, three-dimensional structures. “That’s when I got interested in woodworking,” says Edwards, who started working at USC 33 years ago. “My professor, Bob Lyon, knew a lot about a lot of things — woodworking, glassmaking, glass blowing, metal working and ceramics — and he was always very encouraging.” Several of the furniture pieces Edwards has crafted, including dining tables and a large bed, are made of heart pine that he salvaged from the house he grew up in near Branchville, in Orangeburg County. His
great-grandfather built the home in 1898, but it was damaged by fire in 1968. Edwards also uses a wood lathe and, along with decorative bowls, has turned several baseball bats — he’s a big fan of Gamecock baseball. When stresses in life inevitably build up, he says, making something by hand is like an escape valve.
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THE DISSERTATION SWEATER KUNIO HARA Assistant professor, School of Music
Kunio Hara has a “dissertation sweater.” It’s a cableknit sweater, one of the most complicated pieces a budding knitter can try, and he did it during the very difficult time of completing — or rather procrastinating — work on his dissertation, “Staging Nostalgia in Puccini’s Operas.” “Knitting is a great way to relax,” says Hara, who teaches music history at Carolina and also participates in a male knitting circle. “At the end of the day, you have something tangible that you made.
It’s something you can hold and say, ‘I did this.’” Hara, a native of Japan, says his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were knitters. But, he notes, knitting patterns from Japan and the U.S. are very different. “In the U.S., you have prose instructions,” he says. “In Japan, you just get a diagram. Patterns here are more like a recipe; in Japan, they are like a blueprint. The way here is easier for me because that is how I learned, but the diagram helps me visualize it better.”
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IT’S OFFICIAL ERIC MELARO Environmental Health Manager, Facilities
By day, Eric Melaro (’94 master’s, marine science) deals with university buildings that may contain mold or hazardous materials, such as lead paint or asbestos. But each fall, when he leaves work, he decompresses with a little music, then some silent reflection before walking into a gym where he becomes perhaps the most hated man in the arena: the referee. As one of the top South Carolina High School League volleyball officials, Melaro has been calling net violations and illegal hits for more than 20 years. It seemed to him a natural progression after his high school years as a volleyball player. “I played volleyball for two years — and yes, we had a boys volleyball team,” says the native of New York. “I played club volleyball in college and then in a rec league after graduation. I love sports, all sports, but volleyball was the one I was best at.” Melaro, who formerly worked for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, initially wanted to coach but didn’t think he’d have time. So a friend recommended he try out to be an official. Now, he even serves as an unofficial proofreader for the annual officials’ exam, a gig he got after pointing out errors. On his way to matches, he thinks about his last match, what went right, what went wrong. Then he tries to think about all the rules that govern a specific action during the game — like substitutions or serving. But the most valuable lesson he has learned has little to do with the rulebook. “It’s interpersonal communication skills,” he says. “You’ve got teenage players, you’ve got coaches and you’ve got parents in the stands. You can’t be defensive or take things personally. That carries over into everyday life.”
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A GLASS ACT BRYAN BURGIN Director of Conferences and Events / College of Education
One afternoon eight years ago, Bryan Burgin was walking through downtown Charleston when he happened upon a glass arts gallery. Burgin (’86 hotel, restaurant and tourism) had always been drawn to the arts, but the colorful pieces on display spoke to him in a way nothing else had. “I peered in the window, and next thing you know, I was signed up for a class,” he says. “Four months later, I got a kiln. I’ve since outgrown that kiln and got another one.” That second kiln now sits at the back of a small studio behind Burgin’s house in North Columbia. Rows of brightly colored glass pendants destined to become jewelry line the kiln’s bottom. The rest of the narrow studio is filled with sheets of colored glass Burgin orders from a company in the Pacific Northwest, jars of ground glass called frit, which can be worked into his creations for additional color, and a variety of molds. The table saw he uses to cut the glass sheets is in an adjacent room.
Burgin’s medium is fused glass, meaning he arranges stacks of colored glass and then fires those stacks in the kiln. He can then shape the pieces, either slumping them into concave molds, draping them over convex ones or putting them into specific molds to yield particular designs. The platters, bowls, wall sconces and jewelry he produces are then sold through Artizan in Columbia. Burgin, the conference and events coordinator for the College of Education since 1992, typically spends about four evenings a week in the studio unwinding after a day at the office. That time alone with the glass kiln serves a therapeutic function — “Creative thoughts cannot exist in the same place as negative thoughts,” he says — but it also provides a much needed outlet for artistic expression. “I had a lot of creativity in me, but I couldn’t find my medium,” Burgin says. “I can’t draw, I can’t paint, so there was a lot of frustration trying to channel that creativity — until I found glass.” T
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The Road Not Taken Choosing a major may be the most important decision a college student makes, but what we major in doesn’t always lead directly to our eventual careers — and according to these USC faculty members, that’s A-OK. AS TOLD TO CRAIG BRANDHORST AND CHRIS HORN
Kirk Randazzo Professor, political science; director, Carolina Leadership Initiative
“Students get so much thrown at them at such an early age today. They’re encouraged to declare majors when they’re in high school, and colleges are increasingly focusing on employability. That is the dominant tension right now in higher education: Do we prep people for certain specific jobs or to be well-rounded citizens?”
I did my undergrad here at USC and part of the reason was to explore music. I’m a saxophone player, and at that time there was a professor here, Roger Pemberton, who was just a phenomenal jazz musician. I started out in music education and doing marching band — both my parents were teachers, so I figured I could become a teacher, too — but I also wanted a school that had a law school attached because part of me also wanted to be an attorney. Anyway, I had an opportunity to do some substitute teaching back at my old middle school in New York at the end of my sophomore year. The kids, bless their hearts, were trying as best they could, but those five days left me with serious questions about whether I could do that for the rest of my life. So I started thinking, “Within music, what else could I do?” I didn’t think I had the skill to be professional musician, although I do play professionally some now. More importantly, I didn’t have the dedication to pursue music as a career. Jim Copenhaver was director of bands at the time, and I was president of the local band fraternity, so we interacted a lot. Jim, who passed a way a year or so ago, had a tremendous influence on my leadership skills, and he helped me understand that my desire to help other people could be met in a variety of ways. Being a teacher — in particular, a high school band teacher — didn’t have to be one of them. Another big influence, in terms of my eventual career, was Don Songer, who also unfortunately passed away recently. Still thinking that I’d go to law school, I decided to take a few political science classes, including POLI 451, which is constitutional law and civil liberties. But I fell in love with research thanks to Don, who used a grant from the National Science Foundation to help pay my way through a master’s in political science. He then encouraged me to pursue a Ph.D., which I did at Michigan State. But if I didn’t have the music background, I doubt that I would be the director of the Leadership Initiative. Just as art is in the eye of the beholder, your success as a leader isn’t based on anything you do; it’s based on how someone else’s life is changed because of you, and there’s no exact formula or mathematical equation. That means you can’t do the exact same thing every
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time, not even with the same person. It’s incredibly dynamic, and I credit my music background for developing that particular skill, recognizing that in music if you play one passage, but change even just one note, you can add a completely different color and evoke a completely different emotion. Pursuing what you’re passionate about really matters, even if it doesn’t work out the way you imagined. If you look at my undergraduate career, measured one way I’m a failure because I’m not in music professionally. But I don’t look at my undergraduate career as a failure. The fundamental things that make me who I am today are linked directly to my background in music. And music is still a large part of my life. I’m president of the USC Alumni Band, I’m the announcer for the marching band, and I play with different bands around town three or four days a week. And if I get really stressed out, I’ll get out the horns and just play jazz standards for a couple hours. Everything just sort of rolls off my back.
James Cutsinger Professor and chair, Department of Religious Studies I grew up in north central Illinois, about 75 miles west of Chicago, just outside of a little town of about 700 called Shabbona, in the middle of a cornfield. I was the only boy in my high school class who wasn’t a member of the Future Farmers of America. My dad was a painting contractor, so I spent my summers painting houses and barns. But I was nerdy, I was weird, and I always had an interest in languages, so I started teaching myself Russian. We’re talking late ’60s, Cold War era — hence Russian. My thinking was, combine Russian and political science, then go to law school and position myself to solve the world’s problems. That’s putting it a little too romantically, but that’s more or less where I was coming from. I went to Cornell College, which is part of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, not Cornell University. We always said we were the older of the two Cornells but much smaller and less well known — it’s a top-notch liberal arts college, but again, I’m out in the middle of the cornfields, this time in Mount Vernon, Iowa. At Cornell, the Russian language professor I worked with also taught linguistics and was particularly interested in psycholinguistics and the work of Noam Chomsky. Chomsky has this idea that the human brain has an inherent, deep-down capacity for language, and so through him, through my Russian professor, I got interested in that stuff, too — the philosophy of language, psychology, language acquisition. Then there was a political scientist I knew — history of political thought was his thing — and through him, for the first time, I read Plato and Aristotle. So you can see what’s going on: the Russian guy is pointing me toward philosophy of language, the political science guy is pushing me toward political theory. And I had a brilliant classics professor as well, probably the best teacher I’ve had in my entire life. Anyway, junior year, first semester, I did a semester abroad in England through something called the Experiment in International Living. The deal was you spent some time at a homestay, you spent some time at Oxford, and then you spent some time on an independent project, traveling wherever you needed to go. It’s crazy to think about the stuff you do when you’re 20.
“I use my experience to help students, but I’m not able to tell you how I do it. It’s an informal process done on a case-by-case basis, there’s not a formula, but one thing I will always stress with young people is the value of interdisciplinary thinking. In a way, what you major in is not as important as the ability to think across boundaries.”
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So one of my projects was to interview the philosopher Michael Polanyi. The political theorist I knew at Cornell was very interested in Polanyi, who was emeritus at Oxford. Polanyi was primarily a chemist, but he also wrote this book called “Personal Knowledge,” which has to do with the tacit dimension, how we know so many things down deep but can’t articulate how we know them. So I got to Oxford, looked up Michael Polanyi in a phone book, called him up and said, “Can I come over? I’m this young kid from Iowa” — again, it’s crazy what we do when we’re 20 — but he said sure. Polanyi, it turned out, was very kind, compassionate and considerate, and we had good conversations. He was also the first man in my life to say to me, “You know, with all of your different interests — political theory and linguistics, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of science — have you ever thought about theology and philosophy of religion?” I hadn’t, but obviously that sparked something in me. The second semester after I came back to Cornell I took a religious studies course and liked it. First semester senior year, I took another religion course, liked it, and thought, “You know, I’ll apply to graduate school in religion.” I applied to three schools, got into all three, chose Harvard, and the rest, as they say, is history. But that was a long time ago. I’ve since I jumped off in other directions. I became interested in comparative philosophy and religion, with a particular interest in mystical traditions — Zen, yoga, Sufism. I was reading stuff about yoga and Zen already in high school, but I have no idea where that came from. No idea. It just emerged. Makes you believe in God.
Helen Doerpinghaus Deputy Provost
“In my 20s, I was completely independent financially. I think that’s a downside of helicopter parents. As long as helicopter parents are propping students up, students may not face some of the harsh realities of daily life. I’ve found ways to enjoy literature and the arts, but as time passed I came to view that more as an avocation than as a vocation.”
I was a double major, English and history, at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and at one point I got involved with a program called Outreach English. A group of us met every week to work on creative writing projects, but we also had a second meeting each week where we would take that same project out into the community. That was my favorite part of college. We went to the maximum-security penitentiary in Stillwater, Minnesota. We went to an assisted living facility for adults with disabilities. We went to a senior citizens center. Outreach English was supposed to be one term, but I ended up doing it the rest of my time at Macalester. Taking what I had learned out into the community really solidified for me the concept of experiential learning. When I graduated I wanted to find meaningful work, something that tapped into who I was, what I could offer, and I decided I wanted to teach. I started a doctoral program in English at UNC Chapel Hill, but I was borrowing money and people were taking six to eight years to finish, then having trouble finding tenure track jobs. After a year, I decided to step out of grad school for a while to make sure that’s really what I wanted to do. That’s when I discovered my aptitude for administration. I was working at UNC, first as an administrative assistant, and then as a business manager at North Carolina Memorial Hospital, and at some point I read somewhere that there were seven jobs for every Ph.D. in business, and I thought, ‘This is me.” I loved the academy, and I still wanted to teach, but I also wanted to find a job and buy a house. So I began looking at graduate schools in business and ended up at Wharton, studying risk management and insurance, specifically health insurance, which I found fascinating. When I came to USC in 1987 as an assistant professor in the finance department, I knew I’d found exactly the right career.
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But that tug of war in my 20s made me realize how much I love literature, and that literature could become my avocation. And of course that experience with Outreach English was even more than that. It was where I discovered that fiction, theater, poetry, all of that is a modality to talk about life, a platform to engage with issues and concerns that we face every day.
Jon Pedersen Incoming dean, College of Education I got my bachelor’s in agriculture — actually, animal nutrition — at the University of NebraskaLincoln back in the early 80s, and then worked for about a year for Land-O-Lakes. In addition to butter and milk, that sort of thing, they also make animal feed, so I was a Land-O-Lakes representative in rural Nebraska, working with farmer cooperatives, talking about livestock nutrition, primarily cattle, pigs, sheep. Agriculture and farming were in my blood. I grew up in the same farmhouse that my grandfather built when he came from Denmark in the early 1900s. The one-room school I attended was the same school that my dad and his brothers and sisters attended. It was a very rural upbringing, and while I knew that I wasn’t going to go back and farm, there was a match between my interests in science and agriculture. But I started to realize that what I really love is the interaction with individuals. The greatest joy I got from my job at Land-O-Lakes was when I was meeting with farmers one-on-one. What I liked a lot less was the business side, the selling side. My wife and I started talking about what I loved and didn’t love about my job. Her family had been involved in education. Her father was a longtime employee of Lincoln public schools, her brother eventually became an elementary school teacher, and my wife herself was a kindergarten teacher at the time. After talking it over, I decided to quit my job, move back to Lincoln and become a science teacher. After I completed all my requirements for a teaching certificate, I got a job teaching chemistry at the school where I did my student teaching here in Lincoln, but my interest in teaching continued to grow, and for whatever reason, an educational psychology professor named John Glover recognized in me a spark and a talent that he wanted to nurture. John really took me under his wing and guided me towards a master’s degree. He encouraged me to not wait, to continue to work on my master’s degree even while I was a first- and second-year teacher. Obviously, our backgrounds influence who we are and how we interact with each other, and I think that one-on-one nurturing relationship that I had with John, and that I had growing up — we only had five kids at our entire school — still plays a big role in how I do what I do as a dean, even at a very large university. I got into teaching because I loved learning and had a passion for science, but honestly, it was about changing kids’ lives, and I realized, “You know, I can teach about 150 kids a year, and of that 150 kids there are X number that I can impact. But if I become a professor, and I’m teaching teachers to teach, and I teach 10-20 teachers a year, and each of those teaches 150 kids a year, the impact would be much greater, it could be exponential.” People ask, “Did you not like teaching? Is that why you got out of high school teaching?” It wasn’t that at all. I loved it, and I still do love teaching. It was about impact, about finding a way to make a difference in as many lives as possible and finding a way that I could continue to grow.
“One-on-one mentoring is something that I want to continue at USC. My experience has been that we don’t have to be impersonal, even at a large school. Quite honestly, I think we have to do that to make a difference. We need to collaborate and look to one another for advice to solve the grand challenges that face our children, our families and our communities.”
16 USCTIMES / APRIL 2016
Denise Wellman Director, USC Visitor Center
“I advise an exceptional group of committed students who bear the official title of university ambassador. Each year they volunteer thousands of hours to welcome people to our beautiful campus and to share their story while providing campus tours to hundreds of thousands of visitors. In reality, though, we are all ambassadors. I try to drive that home every chance I get.”
I have always loved animals, so when it came time to go to college, it just seemed logical to pursue a track that would lead to veterinary school. By the time I got to Michigan State, I had six years of working in animal hospitals, and I majored in zoology. The summer before I started college and for the next four summers I worked at a resort on the east shore of Lake Michigan called Michillinda — it was named for Michigan, Illinois and Indiana where most of the vacationers came from. The staff put on a variety show on Friday evenings, and there was bingo and shuffleboard and chapel on Wednesday evenings and, of course, the white sand beach of the lake. It was, by far, the funnest thing I had ever done. I was a waitress for two years, then a hostess and finally ran the front desk and gift shop and learned about customer service and being gracious. I still wanted to go to vet school, but physics was not my subject. And then I took the placement test for veterinary school twice and wasn’t successful. I wasn’t going to get in, so I figured I had to come up with a new direction. I did some fundraising work for the National Epilepsy Foundation and got to reconnect with some of the Michillinda families in the process. After talking with student affairs staff at Michigan State, I decided to apply to graduate school to pursue an M.Ed. in higher education. I had spent 22 winters in Michigan, so I came to Carolina without ever having seen the campus, which is kind of funny when you think about what I do now. And I’ve been here ever since. I eventually earned a Ph.D. and have been director of the Visitor Center for a large portion of my career. Working here has been like an extension of my time at Michillinda. It’s about taking care of people and paying attention to the details of their experience so they’ll want to come back.
Michael Dickson Professor and chair, Philosophy
“I thought, mistakenly, that I needed to be a philosophy major to get into grad school, so I went to the chair of the philosophy department at the time… Now that I’m in her seat as department chair, I know that it must have been annoying for her to deal with a student like me.”
When I was an Honors College undergraduate here in the late ’80s, I thought I wanted to go to law school and do international law. So I took courses in international studies and Russian. I worked part time for a law firm in town, and that turned out to be the wisest decision I could have made because I had this unrealistic idea of what lawyers do. I thought they spent most of their time trying cases, but I learned that’s about 5 percent of being a lawyer. So in my junior year I gave up on that idea. I was also taking a lot of theoretical physics and mathematics courses, and I decided to study the philosophy of quantum theory in graduate school. But I thought, mistakenly, that I needed to be a philosophy major to get into grad school, so I went to the chair of the philosophy department, Nora Bell. Now that I’m in her seat as department chair, I know that it must have been annoying for her to deal with a student like me. But she was very professional and courteous. I made the case that a lot of the Honors College courses I had taken had a philosophical angle to them and could substitute for required courses in the philosophy curriculum. After several conversations she finally said OK — probably just to be done with me — but she insisted I had to take both introduction to logic and advanced logic; the latter was a tough course. So I was able to cobble together a philosophy major and went to Notre Dame for a Ph.D. I don’t draw on the international studies courses anymore. I used to be able to speak Russian, but I think all I can probably say now is ‘I am an American’ or ‘Where is the hotel?’ And while I
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started out in quantum physics, I’m doing more work in game theory now, which is very mathematical. I probably should have been a mathematician! But quantum mechanics was one of the most influential courses I took here — Frank Avignone taught it. There’s no way I would have gone on to do what I did without that class.
Rebecca Stern Associate professor and undergraduate director, English As an undergraduate at NYU I majored in music and music technology. My mother was horrified, but she let me do it. She was a high school English teacher, and I said I would never be an English teacher. Although I loved reading, and writing always came naturally to me, I wanted to study sound and to work in a studio, doing production. But I discovered while I was an undergraduate that, while writing came naturally to me, sound work didn’t. Throughout college I had internships, and then I worked for two years in the music industry after I got out of college, but even then I had the sense that I was going to be bored by the time I was 30. I started taking literature classes and writing classes at the New School in the evenings, just because it was fun. For a year and a half after undergrad I was the tour manager and publicist for [jazz guitarist] Stanley Jordan. That was the last fulltime job that I had before switching back to school. It was a lot of coordinating — making sure hotels are booked and the transportation is in place, the green room is set up. I was also doing local press, setting up interviews. It was interesting up to a point but not intellectually. It wasn’t about big ideas. The truth of the matter is, to be a recording engineer or a producer you don’t really need a degree. You need experience. Having the NYU connection helped me get internships that helped me get that experience, but I do wish I’d taken more diverse classes. I don’t regret having learned what I learned, but after I finished undergraduate I spent three semesters putting together a more robust transcript in English so that I could go on to graduate school. In addition to the New School, I did three semesters at Harvard as what’s called a “special student,” or a non-matriculating graduate student. After that, I went to Rice for my Ph.D. in Victorian literature. I was very lucky and was able to get a job teaching English, which I love. I’ve had to make choices, though. While I was working for Stanley Jordan, I applied for a job with Daniel Lanois, the producer. I met his manager at the New Music Seminar and told him I’d love to apprentice. He said, “Well, why don’t you write him a letter, send it to me and I’ll make sure it gets to Dan.” I ended up interviewing, and I didn’t get the position, but he kept my information. Later, on my first day of graduate school, I got a call from Dan Lanois. He said, “I have work for you, I want to fly you to New Orleans.” The job? Working with Bob Dylan. It was one of those moments: I stood at the crossroads and made the choice. And I think it was the right choice. One thing that concerns me now is that students are expected to come to college knowing exactly what they’re going to do. Although I see the reason for that — college is very expensive, for one thing — there isn’t enough space for play, for experimentation, for exploration. I think it’s wonderful if you know exactly what you want to do when you’re 18, but many people change their minds along the way and end up just fine as a result. T
“One thing I’ve said a number of times over the years is that you should be in school because you want to be in school, because there are things you want to learn, not because it’s the next thing to do. I know that’s difficult, but if you’re not really interested in learning, you’re wasting money and time. There are many rewarding things that one can do that don’t require a degree, and to get a degree you don’t have to start when you’re 18.”
18 USCTIMES / APRIL 2016
BREAKTHROUGH BREAKOUT
BY STEVEN POWELL
ALL THE PLASTIC THAT’S FIT TO PRINT WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT 3-D PRINTING THESE DAYS AND FOR GOOD REASON. FROM THE LABORATORY TO THE FACTORY TO THE MARKETPLACE — THE POTENTIAL IS ONLY AS A LIMITED AS OUR IMAGINATIONS. JUST ASK MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JOSHUA TARBUTTON, WHOSE APPLICATIONS FOR THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGY ARE NOW PUSHING PLASTICS IN A VARIETY OF NEW DIRECTIONS.
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Professor Tarbutton with Shana Mussel
3-D JUSTICE
Three-dimensional printing is a versatile new technology, and mechanical engineering assistant professor Joshua Tarbutton is harnessing it in more arenas than just the research laboratory. Through connections in the community, Tarbutton recently learned about a death row inmate near the end of his appeals. Convicted of murdering a police officer more than 20 years ago, the inmate has been trying to establish his contention that he did not know he
was being confronted by a police officer and had been startled at the time of the shooting. The inmate tried to reconstruct the shooting scene with a model to make the point, but the cardboard contraption he assembled in jail didn’t do much to strengthen his argument. At the behest of Justice 360, a nonprofit that provides quality legal representation to death row inmates, Tarbutton enlisted undergraduate Shana Mussel to help re-create the scene of the crime. Using forensic photographs and other evidence, she modeled the house and porch from which the police officer was shot. They then brought the scene to life through 3-D printing, generating a scale model of the house, its porch and the two men involved. Based on the geometry of the shooting established by the evidence, they determined that the inmate’s view of the officer was, in fact, obscured when he fired, and that the weapon was fired from the hip. Those conclusions could make a difference for a man whose life hangs in the balance, and a hearing on the case is expected later this year. If a new trial takes place, both engineers will likely testify. T
LAYING IT ON THICK Helping out in the judicial system may be an interesting sideline, but Tarbutton’s primary research interests involve materials like pressure-sensitive plastics. Tarbutton has modified a 3-D printer to produce a plastic film that is piezoelectric, meaning small amounts of pressure generate an electrical potential in the material. The concept of piezoelectricity may sound arcane, but it’s a common element of modern technology. “They use it for every kind of sensor you can think of,” Tarbutton says. “Microphones, accelerometers, strain sensors.” The plastic he starts with, PVDF, requires melting and processing in a specific way to
make it piezoelectric. “What they usually do is stretch it, which converts the plastic from the alpha phase into the beta phase,” Tarbutton says. “Then they elevate the temperature and apply an electric field, which aligns the molecules in the material and makes it piezo electric.” The stretching part of the process limits output to thin films, Tarbutton says, so he decided to try to do the preparation in just one step. He set up a 3-D printer with an electric field enveloping the print head, which achieved alpha-tobeta conversion and molecular alignment in the plastic all at once. Tarbutton’s method shatters the millimeterscale ceiling on thickness that the old process
once enforced. Doing the material fabrication with a 3-D printer has the potential to produce an essentially limitless variety of shapes, and that has brought some commercial attention to his lab — attention Tarbutton welcomes. “I think all of engineering should be tied to some value proposition, and this absolutely has potential,” Tarbutton says. “No one has ever 3-D-printed piezoelectric plastic before, and it’s a $5 billion market right now.”
20 USCTIMES / APRIL 2016
SYSTEM EFFECT
USCAiken Nestled in the heart of horse country, USC Aiken actively embraces its equestrian traditions — not only with its mascot, the Pacer (a specially Chancellor Sandra Jordan trained horse), but also with polo competitions, a horse show team and an equestrian club. But USC Aiken has much to be proud of beyond the area’s equestrian roots. Since its founding — and since 2012, under the leadership of Chancellor Sandra Jordan — USC Aiken has become an educational workhorse. Ranked No. 1 by U.S. News among comprehensive universities in the South for 11 of the past 18 years, the former commuter school now serves more than 3,450 students, offers 50 degree programs and boasts a 14:1 teacher-student ratio. And turning out high quality graduates isn’t the only measure of USC Aiken’s impact. “From the inception of USC Aiken in 1961, when local citizens lobbied for a university here, we have enjoyed a longstanding dynamic, engaging, and supportive relationship with the community and throughout the region,” Jordan says. “Creating collaborative partnerships and innovative solutions to advance our community, region and state is not just a strategic goal for us. It’s a reality for USC Aiken.” OLD GROWTH, NEW GROWTH Ruth Patrick Science Education Center
The Ruth Patrick Science Education Center — named for a scientist who studied the waterways of South Carolina for more than
BY DAN COOK
60 years — is a living testament to USC Aiken’s commitment to community. Located in natural woodlands environment that includes an old-growth forest and a beaver pond, the center provides fertile study sites where students and teachers can experience the marvel of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Last year, there were 82,000 visits to the center and its programs. Opened in 1995, the center’s planetarium and observatory are among its most popular attractions, presenting programs for K-12 and the general public. Other attractions include the Crawford Greenewalt Solarium, the Westinghouse Physical Science Class/Lab and the Apple Computer Learning Center. Director Gary J. Senn is passionate about the hands-on approach of the center, which helps develop the natural curiosity of a child
into a love of science through engaging, interactive programs. “I see the mission continuing into the future because STEM literacy and careers are so important,” Senn says. “I envision the outreach from the center to continue to expand.” BEST FOR OUR VETS Veteran and Military Student Success Center
The director of the Veteran and Military Success Center is himself a successful example of military-to-civilian transition. Robert Murphy served 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and a stint with the U.S. Capitol Police before enrolling at USC Aiken, where he started a student veteran organization. “The organization quickly grew in size and scope, and upon graduation, Chancellor Jordan offered me an opportunity to begin
The Ruth Patrick Science Education Center
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a dedicated program supporting veteran and military students,” Murphy says. The center works to ease the transition process for veterans and connect them with support services. It’s a mission Murphy sees as particularly important in an era of military downsizing. “Our vision is to best position veteran and military students to achieve their education, career and life goals,” he says. That mission has been successful: USC Aiken had a 116 percent increase in veteran and military students in 2015; there are now more than 300 such students enrolled. As a result, the center is expanding: It will open in its new space this month. Military Times ranks USC Aiken on its Best for Vets list, naming it the No. 1 school for vets in South Carolina two years in a row. Also, Victory Media recently named USC Aiken one of the Top 100 Military Spouse Friendly Schools; the campus will be featured in the April edition of Military Spouse magazine, which serves more than 1.1 million spouses. NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS Endowed Professorship in Industrial Process Engineering
The Savannah River Site — a federal nuclear facility occupying 310 square miles south of Aiken — is a major employer throughout the region and relies on USC Aiken to help educate the professionals it needs. Last fall, the school announced a major initiative to do just that — the establishment of the industrial process engineering degree program. And last month, Johnson announced a major gift that will help in the effort. “I am pleased to announce that the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has committed $550,000 to an endowed professorship for this program, which will tremendously help with recruiting and retaining the best faculty in this discipline,” Johnson said. Launched last fall, the program has already attracted 180 students.
“It’s my hope that this partnership will convince our high-level thinkers to remain in South Carolina,” Johnson said. “Students who graduate from the program will have the knowledge of the processes of industry from multiple viewpoints: mechanical, manufacturing and business.” WORKING OUT WELL Wellness Center and Natatorium
The 25,000-square-foot Wellness Center is an excellent workout resource for students and faculty/staff members — but USC Aiken’s commitment to health and wellness doesn’t end there. Through a partnership with the Aiken Regional Medical Center, the facility offers a cardiac rehabilitation program and exercise classes especially for adults ages 60 and older. The Wellness Center offers bikes, rowers, treadmills, ski machines, elliptical cross-trainers, stair steppers, dumbbells and a walking track. Meanwhile, the 60-Plus Seniors Program offers strength classes, yoga and Zumba, as well as and water aerobics at the Natatorium’s six-lane pool. “Helping individuals strive to improve their overall health and well-being has always been a passion of mine,” says Mila Padgett, director of campus recreation and wellness. “Our lives are constantly evolving and that means we must also morph and change our behaviors in order to keep our mind and bodies well.”
EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS The Mill on Park
With 320 permanent employees and a $60 million operating budget, USC Aiken has a big economic impact on the surrounding city. And it’s working to deepen that relationship by helping the city grow its small businesses via The Mill on Park. A downtown co-working space founded in partnership with the Aiken Small Business Development Center, the Mill on Park offers space to entrepreneurs, who can rent a single desk, an office or a conference room. Working with business faculty and students from USC Aiken, clients also learn about marketing, budgeting, financing and other available resources. “The Mill is a unique collaboration, nested in the heart of historic downtown Aiken,” says Mick Fekula, dean of the USC Aiken School of Business Administration. “It aligns perfectly with the strategic plan of Mayor Rick Osbon, a class of ’93 alum, and the City of Aiken — specifically by supporting education; promoting employment opportunities; encouraging entrepreneurship; supporting local business owners; and mentoring newer workforce members.” As Aiken works to develop its entrepreneurial sector, The Mill on Park is a vital part of that effort — and USC Aiken is a key partner in helping the community toward that goal. T
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While the Advising Center focuses on specific areas — students changing majors, transfer students, academic coaching, etc. — regular academic advisement will still happen in the student’s college or school. The difference is that students will meet with advisers who have been trained to a common set of standards. With the hiring of new advisers, the goal is a 300-to-1 adviser-to-student ratio. Good Advice: Revamped Advisement Process Helps Students Find Their Way http://www.sc.edu/advising/uac/… University Advising Center (Page 2) about this result
Finding Avocation www.issuu.com/uofsc/docs/times_april2016_final April, 2016 – You can love your day job and still find room for other equally rewarding pursuits. From baking to knitting to just plain clowning around, USC faculty and staff find creative ways to express themselves and blow off steam when the workday’s done… The Road Not Taken www.issuu.com/uofsc/docs/times_april2016_final April, 2016 – Choosing a major may be the most important decision a college student makes, but what we major in doesn’t always lead directly to our eventual careers — and according to these USC faculty members, that’s A-OK… System Effect: USC Aiken www.issuu.com/uofsc/docs/times_april2016_final April, 2016 - “From the inception of USC Aiken in 1961, when local citizens lobbied for a university here, we have enjoyed a longstanding dynamic, engaging, and supportive relationship with the community and throughout the region…” All the Plastic that’s Fit to Print www.issuu.com/uofsc/docs/times_april2016_final