Milestones -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 2
Profile: Tom Saccenti .-.-.-.-. 3
Faculty News .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- 4–5
INSIDE FURMAN
New Faculty -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 6
Profile: Steve Watson -.-.-.-. 7
Around Campus .-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 8
Kelly’s Korner -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 9
Forum -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 10
winter 2014
Taking on Greenville’s food deserts
I
magine that you live in a neighborhood with no supermarket.
There are no produce stands,
only convenience stores and fast
food restaurants.
And your transportation options
are limited.
How would you get fresh fruit,
vegetables, and other healthy foods?
This situation and question faces many
residents in Greenville County.
Since 2010 Furman Health Sciences
Professor Alicia Powers, Ph.D., has
led an ongoing project to identify
and map all areas in the county
that lack availability of healthy,
affordable, culturally appropriate
foods—areas known by health
experts as food deserts.
Her goal is to help replace these
food deserts with food oases to
promote healthier eating and living.
“The important aspect of this
research is that it is intersecting with a
real issue to promote positive change
in the community,” said Dr. Powers.
She began her project by helping
to conduct community health
assessments in the Sterling,
Nicholtown, and Berea communities,
as part of a Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation grant.
“But the idea expanded to the
entire county as interest in improving
the local food system grew,” Dr.
Powers said.
Part of the study, utilizing 20
Furman students, was to determine
the location of all food
establishments—including
supermarkets, convenience stores, and
all types of restaurants—then
personally visit and survey more than
1,000 of them to see what kinds of
food they offered, and at what price
and quality.
“In order to know what to change,
we had to know to what extent food
deserts existed in Greenville County,”
Dr. Powers said.
In their research, students found
that many local residents had to rely
mostly on snacks, fried and other fatty
foods from neighborhood convenience
stores or fast food stops, often with no
fresh vegetables or fruit.
As a result, Dr. Powers said, healthrelated issues such as diabetes, obesity,
hypertension, and cardio-vascular
disease are likely to be more prevalent
in these Food Desert communities.
“So we’re trying to give people,
who might not otherwise have it,
the opportunity to have a healthy
lifestyle,” said Furman senior Lexie
Lipham, a health sciences major
and researcher.
Once the research is completed,
Dr. Powers said she intends to work
with local food help agencies to
reduce the county’s food deserts.
“We won’t have the data ready
until spring 2014,” she said. “But
once we identify and map where the
food deserts are, we can form
partnerships to combat the issue.”
Since the early 1990s, when the
term food deserts was introduced in
the United Kingdom, this issue has
been fought in many American cities.
Mari Gallagher, national food
deserts expert and Principal of Mari
Gallagher Research & Consulting
Group in Chicago, Ill., said the issue
has grown in lower-income and
minority communities.
“We’re conservatively projecting
that about 10 percent of the U.S.
population, roughly 31 million
people, are living in a food desert,”
Gallagher said. “It’s a very, very
serious problem in all 50 states,
in rural and urban areas.”
Gallagher further cited in a 2011
article for National Public Radio that
she knew of no U.S. city that has
“eradicated food deserts.”
Powers and several Upstate allies
are preparing for a long fight and
could help Greenville could become
the first.
For example, Reece Lyerly, an
original Furman research student in
the food deserts study, began a
partnering network of community
gardens in 2011 called Gardening
for Good.
“We now have 80 community
gardens,” Lyerly said “And Dr.
Powers’s project was a main reason I
stayed in Greenville after graduation—
to help see it through as a true
culture shift in this community.”
Dan Weidenbenner, a 2012
Furman graduate, started another
venture that same year called
Mill Village Farms to establish
fruit and vegetable farms in
food desert neighborhoods.
“We have three local farms and
are developing a fourth,” Weidenbenner said. “And next year, through
aquaponics (growing food in water),
we plan to deliver fresh fruit and
vegetables year-round to the local
food deserts.”
And Loaves & Fishes, a local mobile
food rescue organization, has teamed
(continued on page 6)
BFM surpasses
goal
T
he Because Furman Matters
comprehensive fundraising
campaign successfully concluded
December 31 by raising more
than $404 million in gifts and
commitments, surpassing the $400
million goal.
More than 60 percent of the
commitments have been made
to the university’s endowment to
support academic scholarships,
programs, and professorships.
Capital support for projects such
as the Townes Science Center, the
Herring Center for Continuing
Education, the Pearce-Horton
Football complex, and the Trone
Student Center renovations,
among others, represented about
17 percent, and 21 percent has
come from commitments to the
annual fund.
The quiet phase of the
campaign opened in 2004, and
in 2007, Because Furman Matters
launched publicly with $225 million
in commitments.
A special edition of Furman
Magazine, to be published in
February, will be dedicated to the
campaign and will include articles
highlighting its broad achievements
through stories of impacted students,
faculty, and donors. The magazine
will also include financial reports
outlining the sources, size, and
projects supported by gifts to BFM.
In the coming weeks a series
of articles describing the ways
the campaign has changed lives,
improved opportunities, and
supported programs will be posted
on Edge and the Furman homepage.
On May 17, the university will
host its annual gala, Night of
the Stars, to celebrate the donors
who helped make Because Furman
Matters a success.
1
Meet the Blockers
Integrative business core (The Block) knits disciplines together, and a whole lot more
F
ew private liberal arts colleges offer business degree
programs. Even fewer incorporate a rigorous MBA-like
experience in those undergraduate disciplines.
Furman does both.
“The Block,”meshes the fundamental elements of
management—accounting, finance, marketing and operations
into a single four-course experience for junior business majors.
Meeting 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. five days a week, the
Block exposes students to the core of business as a seamless,
interconnected unit Team taught by four professors, it
helps students identify and solve complex management
problems, hones business acumen, fosters unity and gives
students a profound understanding of the inner workings
of a successful business.
“In the Block, we essentially take students out of college for
a semester and throw them into the real world,” says finance
professor Katie Player who teaches the course with Kirk Karwan,
Suzy Summers, and Robert Underwood.
The group, normally around 30 students, also visits
successful manufacturers and other firms, interviews business
leaders and attends seminars on networking, interviewing,
resume writing, social media, and leadership.
In true liberal arts fashion, the professors also weave
in subjects including ethics, leadership, globalization, and
sustainability. Susan Zeiger (Internship Programs), John Barker
(Career Services), Kim Keefer (Shucker Leadership Program),
and Peggy Batchelor (Computer Science) are honorary faculty
who lead classes throughout the semester. Faculty say students
emerge from the program with a broader understanding of
how businesses work, a solid set of business skills, and a keen
awareness of their natural abilities.
“The issues facing practicing managers are rarely confined to
one functional area of business,” says Karwan. “We believe an
integrative, interdisciplinary view of management is essential to
effective decision making.”
The approach was instituted in 2010, in part, to help
improve internship prospects for majors entering their
senior year.
“Before the Block, students wouldn’t have a good grasp of
the core of business or a mastery of business parlance until just
before they left the university,” says Karwan. “With the Block,
students are equipped earlier in their academic careers so they
can take advantage of internships and study away assignments
following their junior year.”
Amanda Soule ’14 interned with BMW last summer and says
the Block boosted her recruiting IQ. “Without understanding
operations and supply chains, marketing and human resources,
BMW might have been out of reach for me.”
Tackling group projects, taking group tours, and spending
countless hours together, Block participants also develop an
esprit de corps. They learn to trust and depend on each other.
“It’s 30 students working together toward a goal,” says
Underwood. “The importance of the bonding and the team
approach in the Block can’t be overstated.”
This sense of community is played out in a semester-long
project where students work in groups of five to dissect and
evaluate a company. Says Player, “They learn delegation skills
and how to apply their strengths in a group setting.”
In just three years, Underwood says the Block has become
a symbol of what makes a Furman education distinctive. It is
a blend of liberal and experiential—hands-on learning that
prepares majors for the challenges of graduate school or
the job market.
“It’s unlike any other class students will encounter,” says
Underwood. “Besides the value it imparts to students, the Block
represents something unique for the department that sets us
apart from other undergraduate liberal arts institutions and even
some business schools.”
“It’s 30 students working
together toward a goal.
The importance of the
bonding and the team
approach in the Block
can’t be overstated.”
– Bob Underwood
— Tina Underwood
M I L E S T O N E S
New employees
20 years
Ann Bryant ...................................................Library
Helen Reynolds ...................... Continuing Education
Brenda Arnold ..........................................Custodial
Bernie Stanton ............................. Facilities Services
Sherry Jordan ...........................................Custodial
Erika Tomayo ............................................Custodial
Anne Smith ........................................Financial Aid
Fred Miller ............. Information Technology Services
Pierre Curtis ..............................................Athletics
Taylor De Lench ....... Marketing and Public Relations
Caitlin Faikes ......... Information Technology Services
Philip Gregory ...........................................Athletics
Lynne Huff .................................................... Music
Tyler Parmelee .............................. Academic Affairs
Katherine Sloan ............................................Library
Karen Turbeville ........................... Academic Affairs
Anniversaries
Brandon Barrierau ........................ Facilities Services
15 years
Wade Shepherd ..... Information Technology Services
Maggie Milat ................................ Academic Affairs
Cathy Frazier ......... Information Technology Services
Keith Faust ................................... Facilities Services
Annie Queen ............................... Facilities Services
10 years
MaryLou Merk .............. Finance and Administration
25 years
Danny Lamb .............................................Custodial
Wendy Bremer ............................................ English
David Tedrow ................................ University Police
Gail McDiarmid ....................................... Sociology
Marian Woods............................University Housing
2
5 years
Fanny Arias ..............................................Custodial
Sydney Wood ............................... Academic Affairs
Brad Pochard .........................................Admissions
Courtenay Nantz ................................Riley Institute
Kala Kennemore ......................... Computer Science
Laura Baines ................................................Library
Dr. Betsy Beymer-Farris meets with Maasai Village Chairmen near the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania
to discuss the impacts of conservation in Tanzania. —Photo by Suresh Muthukrishnan Ph.D.
Growing a program from the ground up
Furman professor opens undergrads to new world in Tanzania
I
n 2000, Betsy Beymer-Farris, Ph.D., first set foot
on the fertile plains of the Serengeti, a vast African plain in Tanzania renowned for its abundant
wildlife. Then an undergraduate student, she
was intent on using the experience to become
a wildlife biologist.
But when she arrived Beymer-Farris discovered
an interesting dynamic that led her down a different
career path.
John Worsham attempts to climb a coconut tree under the
watch of field guide Abdullah Saidi. Worsham was one of four
undergraduates in Furman’s Sustainability Science program
to accompany Dr. Betsy Beymer-Farris to Tanzania in the summer
There in the savanna grasslands a struggle was
taking place pitting well-meaning conservationists
and the Maasai, a largely nomadic group that had
long lived off the land.
As the governments of Kenya and Tanzania
passed laws to limit access and land use, they were
threatening the culture of the Maasai, a group who
have lived in harmony with the environment for
centuries and long resisted government entreaties to
embrace a sedentary lifestyle.
The struggle fascinated Beymer-Farris so
much that she refocused her academic attention
to sustainability science—an emerging academic
discipline seeking to bridge the divide between the
social and the natural sciences in order to theorize
and understand complex environmental issues.
Today, she is helping to build the major at
Furman while returning to coastal Tanzania during
the summer with students to research and monitor
the plight of local villagers experiencing similar
impacts as the Masaai.
Earlier this year, Beymer-Farris and her small
research team, which includes partnering faculty
in Norway and Tanzania, secured a $3.2 million
grant from a Norwegian donor agency to continue
their work.
“Furman was the first school in the country
to offer a sustainability science major at the
undergraduate level in 2011,” said Beymer-Farris,
who joined Furman after completing her Ph.D. in
Geography at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. “And since I was interested in helping
to create a university program, I thought this major
would be perfect.”
Beymer-Farris teaches classroom Principles
of Sustainability Science, Social Systems and
Resilience and Adaptation, part of Furman’s Earth
and Environmental Sciences Department. She
focuses students on the integration of ecology
with environmental politics and global economic
development, and their potential to handle
“some of the problems we’re facing,” such as
water scarcity and sanitation, pollution and waste
management, and natural resource access, control,
and management.
Beymer-Farris, who speaks fluent native Swahili,
makes arrangements for each student to lodge in a
thatched-roof hut with a Tanzanian family. They eat
what the family eats, sleep on floor beds, and live
with no running water, no electricity, and no English.
After earning the local villagers’ trust, students
interview and document how growing restrictions on
land use has changed their culture. Conversely, some
students work within the national marine parks.
They question park managers and document how
conservation is helping to preserve the abundant
marine and coastal biodiversity there, which includes
dolphins, whale sharks, and sea turtles.
“During my research, I spent part of my time
with a local farmer clearing weeds in fields with a
garden hoe, and cutting brush with a machete so the
soil nutrition would get to the crops,” said George
Flowers, 22, the program’s first graduate in 2012.
“But I never wanted to pack up and come home.”
As a bonus Beymer-Farris notes that students
also observe the endless marine and wildlife, such as
lions, hippos, and whale sharks, in a natural setting,
and see a country that is “stunningly beautiful.”
“The undergrads are essentially like mastersdegree students in the field,” Beymer-Farris said.
“They do their own research and field work, and I
have two students this year who I’m working with
for publication in academic journals.”
The grant will fund five additional years of field
research. As land use restrictions have grown in
recent decades, so has the tension between the
local villagers like the Maasai and the government.
Beymer-Farris hopes her findings will encourage the
groups to work to find a delicate balance that will
preserve both the land and a way of life.
— Clark Leech
of 2013 for field research.
—Photo by Suresh Muthukrishnan Ph.D.
3
F
Art
Marie Watkins served as
panel moderator of the
session “New Views of the
West” at the 25th annual
Southwest Art History
Conference, in Taos, New
Mexico, in October.
Asian Studies
Kate Kaup served as
invited speaker at Colby
College’s China Town Hall,
sponsored by the National
Committee on United
States-China Relations in
October. The presentation
was titled “Violence in Tibet
and Xinjiang: Is There A
Way Out for the Chinese
Government?”
Biology
Joe Pollard’s Article,
“Facultative Hyperaccumulation of Nickel in
Psychotria grandis,” was
published in the journal
Caribbean Naturalist. Three
former students were coauthors on the paper. Pollard
also continues to serve as
editor of Chinquapin, the
quarterly newsletter of
the Southern Appalachian
Botanical Society, and
attended the September
meeting of that society’s
executive council, on which
he serves. John Quinn, with
Jesse Wood ’14, presented
a research poster “Improving
biodiversity conservation
in multifunctional
agroecosystems” at the Yale
Farm Systems Symposium.
Quinn presented a poster
titled “Conservation of
Bell’s Vireo in managed
ecosystems” at the Nebraska
Natural Legacy Conference
and served as a reviewer for
the journal Paddy and Water
Environment and Journal of
Field Ornithology.
Business and
Accounting
Marion McHugh and
coauthor Paul Polinski
won the national George
Krull / Grant Thornton
Teaching Innovation
award for their accounting
4
A
C
systems case, “Bellwether
Garden Supply: Revising
Purchase and Disbursement
Processes and Controls in the
Implementation of a New
Accounting Application.”
At the AIS Educators’
Association Annual Meeting
in July, Daniel Smith ’13
and Michael MacGuidwin
’13, received the Jack and
Maye Stewart Student
Project Competition award in
recognition of, “outstanding
work by students on
accounting information
systems class projects and
cases.” At the conference,
McHugh presented the
related class project and his
students’ analysis. Jeanine
Stratton co-presented
research posters with Blake
Williams ’14, on retailer
advertising strategies, and John
Kiser ’14, and Haley Jones
’14, on “greenwashing”
prevalence rates at the Florida
Association for Behavior
Analysis in Daytona Beach.
Stratton served as a guest
grant reviewer for the
National Science Foundation.
Stratton was nominated by
the Shi Center to attend the
Feeding the Planet Summit
in Washington, D.C., with
Glen Halva-Neubauer (PS)
and eight students. Stratton is
also the recipient of the Duke
Endowment Food Systems
research fund for 2013–2014.
CTL
Diane Boyd, along with
Josie Baudier and Traci
Stromie of Kennesaw
State University, presented
“Flipping the Mindset: Reframing Fear and Failure as
Development Catalysts” as
this year’s Anchor Session
at the Professional and
Organizational Development
network international meeting
in Pittsburgh in November.
Communication
Studies
Brandon Inabinet presented
at two conferences in Europe;
in Germany on “Rhetoric
in Europe,” regarding his
research on the ethical
theories of Chaïm Perelman,
and in the Netherlands and
Belgium on “Weapons of
Mass Seduction,” regarding
the circulation of capitalist
and anti-capitalist discourse
in the early U.S. Inabinet’s fall
publications include a book
review in Rhetoric Society
Quarterly and a short essay
in the international journal,
Controversia.
U
Earth and
Environmental
Sciences
Betsy Beymer-Farris was an
invited speaker for Clemson
University’s Department of
Wildlife and Fisheries Biology
Annual Seminar Series in
September. Beymer-Farris
published a chapter titled
“Producing Biodiversity in
Tanzania’s Mangrove Forests?
A Combined Political Ecology
and Ecological Resilience
Approach to Sustainably
Utilized Landscapes” in an
edited volume: Land Change
Science, Political Ecology,
and Sustainability: Synergies
and Divergences (Routledge
2013). Weston Dripps,
Brannon Andersen, and
Brad Harmon presented a
poster “Furman University’s
Sustainability Living
Learning Communities”
at the annual Association
for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher
Education (AASHE) national
conference in Nashville in
October. Weston Dripps,
Greg Lewis, Brannon
Andersen, and Rachel
Baxter ’13, recently published
a peer reviewed original
article “Hydrogeochemical
Characterization of
Headwater Seepages
Inhabited by the Endangered
Bunched Arrowhead
(Sagittaria fasciculata) in the
Upper Piedmont of South
Carolina” in the journal
Southeastern Naturalist.
Education
George Lipscomb was
elected to a three year term
on the Executive Board of the
College and University Faculty
Assembly (CUFA) of the
National Council of the Social
Studies. CUFA’s purpose is to
promote the common interest
of social studies educators
in research, teaching, and
other scholarly activities.
Paul Thomas published three
edited volumes: Becoming
and Being a Teacher, which
includes chapters from Katie
Stover, Scott Henderson,
Dawn Mitchell, and Mike
Svec; Science Fiction and
Speculative Fiction, which
includes chapters from Svec,
Mike Winiski (CTL), and
Aaron Passell (SOC); coedited with Joe Bower,
De-Testing and De-grading
Schools. The National Council
L
T
of Teachers of English named
Thomas Council Historian
(2013–2015) and awarded
him the 2013 George Orwell
Award for his blogging.
Lorraine DeJong published
an article with Meredith
Burton (CDC) entitled “Book
clubs strengthen familyteacher partnerships and build
community” in the journal
Young Children in November.
English
Michele Speitz served
as invited special session
speaker at the 21st Annual
North American Society for
the Study of Romanticism
Conference, sponsored by
Boston University and The
College of the Holy Cross.
An expanded version of her
talk, “Formal Remainders:
Wordsworth, Brevity,
and Being Cut Short” is
forthcoming from the
Romantic Circles Praxis Series.
History
Erik Ching, along with
co-author Hector Lindo of
Fordham University, won the
2013 Alfred B. Thomas Book
Award from the Southeastern
Council of Latin American
Studies (SECOLAS) for their
book, Modernizing Minds in
El Salvador: Education Reform
and the Cold War, 1960-1980,
University of New Mexico
Press. The award is given
“for the best book on a Latin
American subject published
by a SECOLAS member in
the previous year.” Lane J.
Harris gave an invited talk
entitled “Asia’s First Republic:
The Birth and Development of
the Modern Chinese State”
at the University of Arkansas
in October. Harris also has
an article “From Democracy
to Bureaucracy: The Baojia
in Nationalist Thought
and Practice, 1927–1949”
appearing in Frontiers of
History in China.
Diane Vecchio published
“From Slavery to Freedom:
African American Life in
Post-Civil War Spartanburg,”
in Recovering the Piedmont
Past: Unexplored Moments
in Nineteenth Century
Upcountry South Carolina
History, University of South
Carolina Press.
Y
Math
Doug Rall gave an
invited talk, “On Maximal
Independent Sets in Cartesian
Products” at the Canadian
Discrete and Algorithmic
Mathematics Conference in
St. John’s, Newfoundland,
in June. Rall is a coauthor
of research papers “On
the Cartesian product of
well-covered graphs” that
appeared in The Electronic
Journal of Combinatorics,
“Domination game: extremal
families of graphs for the
3/5-conjectures” in the
journal Discrete Applied
Mathematics, “On graphs
having maximal independent
sets of exactly t distinct
cardinalities” in Graphs and
Combinatorics and the paper
“Rainbow domination in
the lexicographic product
of graphs” that appeared in
Discrete Applied Mathematics.
Modern
Languages and
Literatures
Marianne Bessy presented
“‘Il ne faut pas trop demander
aux mots’: paniques
linguistiques dans l’œuvre
alexakienne” at the Vassilis
Alexakis colloquium organized
by the Université de Picardie
Jules Verne in Amiens, France,
in September.
Music
Omar Carmenates
performed on a recording
of Inuksuit by John Luther
Adams in October. This
75-minute outdoor percussive
tour-de-force was recorded
in the forests of Guilford,
Vermont, by 33 percussionists
from across North America.
The work received positive
reviews from Alex Ross in the
New York Times. David Gross
(piano), Deirdre Hutton
(violin), and Christopher
Hutton (violoncello) spent
May playing a thirteenconcert tour of recitals in
New Zealand with programs
of music by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, Johannes
Brahms, Antonin Dvorak,
Gabriel Faure, and American
composers Paul Schoenfield
and William Bolcom.
N E W SSUSTAINABLE
CONNECTIONS
Mark Kilstofte is currently a
guest researcher and Fulbright
scholar at the University of
Oslo’s Center for Ibsen Studies
where he is composing an
opera based on Henrik Ibsen’s
Brand. Kilstofte was invited to
give a composition seminar at
the Malmö Academy of Music
(Sweden) earlier this fall. His
“To Music,” commissioned
by the Furman Singers, was
recently performed by the
Nova Singers under the
direction of Laura Lane.
Matt Olson presented guest
saxophone master classes at
three North Carolina high
schools. Olson also had fall
semester performances with
the Greenville Jazz Collective,
Asheville Jazz Orchestra,
Nashville-based singer
Diane Marino, the touring
Broadway show Anything
Goes, and his own jazz group
at Fall for Greenville. Charles
Tompkins performed a recital
at the Porter Center for the
Performing Arts at Brevard
College in September. The
program featured works by
Bruhns, Sweelinck, J.S. Bach,
Robert J. Powell, Reger, and
Carl Rutti, performed on the
Porter Center’s 3-manual
Jaeckel organ.
Philosophy
Aaron Simmons published
a book entitled The
New Phenomenology: A
Philosophical Introduction,
which has been adopted
as a graduate course text
at the University of Vienna.
Simmons also served as
a referee panelist for a
National Endowment for
the Humanities Fellowship
competition. Simmons is
currently the vice-president
of the South Carolina
Society for Philosophy and
an officer in the Soren
Kierkegaard Society, Society
for Christian Philosophers,
and the American Academy of
Religion (Southeast Region).
Political Science
Jim Guth published three
articles: “The Church
and Congress: Religious
Affiliations and Foreign Policy
Voting in the U.S.” and
“Militant and Cooperative
Internationalism among
American Religious Publics,”
in the Politics and Religion
Journal (Autumn 2013),
and “Religion and American
Public Attitudes on War
and Peace,” in the Asian
Journal of Peacebuilding
(November 2013). Guth
also presented a paper on
religion’s role in producing
factional alignments in the
U.S. Congress at the annual
meeting of the Society for the
Scientific Study of Religion in
Boston in November. Aristide
Tessitore’s essay “Tocqueville
on Enlightenment Philosophy
and Biblical Religion in
American Democracy,”
was published as a chapter
in Resistance to Tyrants,
Obedience to God: Religion
and Reason at the American
Founding Lexington Press,
2013.
Religion
Echol Nix was recently
interviewed by members of
the Oral History Project at
Morehouse College and will
be recognized in publications
in honor of Morehouse’s
Sesquicentennial in 2017.
Burton is a quiet champion for sustainability
M
eredith Burton engages students in scholarly research about the natural world. Students form
research groups, assess and diagram the current state of knowledge on a topic, generate
questions, run experiments, and then disseminate their findings. Burton’s students are not earning
a general education requirement for their work. This research won’t be submitted to peer-reviewed
journals and probably won’t land on their résumés. She teaches three- to six-year old children and
directs Furman’s Child Development Center (CDC).
A graduate of Furman’s education program now in her ninth year with the CDC, Burton
includes environmental education throughout the students’ pre-school experience. The parking lot
is a “no-idling” zone to protect air quality. Children learn how and what to recycle. They compost
food scraps to nourish plants in the school’s butterfly garden. Students enjoy a large wooded play
space. They take discovery walks along the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
The CDC uses a project-based curriculum—teachers facilitate learning through student
observations and questions. Because kids are curious about the world around them, Burton says,
the project approach often focuses on questions of science and the natural world.
This past fall, students were curious about trees. Why do different trees have different types
of bark? How do we know what color a tree’s leaves will turn in autumn? What happens to a
tree when it dies? To find answers, students compared and contrasted real, living trees with their
own drawings. They placed leaves in water to see which leaves float and which sink. They applied
chromatography methods to predict whether a leaf would turn orange, red, or yellow. They made
paper. Finally, they summarized and presented their findings to their classmates.
Learning at the CDC extends beyond young children to their families. Burton cites parents
who bring grass clippings and coffee grounds for the school compost bin, or who receive a pintsized guilt trip for each recyclable item they toss in the trash can. One father said that through
their involvement in the school’s butterfly garden project, he and his daughter became much more
aware of their surroundings while playing in the yard or taking a hike. This value was important to
the family, and the school had helped to cultivate that awareness of the natural world.
When I ask Meredith why environmental education is important, her excited cascade of stories
about students and projects stops abruptly, and she seems at a loss to express how fundamental
the answer should be. Referencing her own four-year-old son, she says, “At this age [3–6 years],
individuals are egocentric. My goal is to broaden their world view. Children will become good
stewards of the environment only by understanding how interconnected the world really is.” It’s an
important lesson for students of all ages.
Yancey Fouche’ is associate director of the Shi Center for Sustainability
Theatre Arts
Maegan Azar directed
The Warehouse Theatre’s
Educational Touring
production of Julius Caesar,
part of the Peace Center for
Performing Arts’ POP Series,
in Greenville and Charleston.
Azar is also the programming
Chair for the South Carolina
Theatre Association and
planned the 2013 Convention
“Engaging the Imagination,”
which took place November
15–17 at Charleston County
School of the Arts with
such keynote presenters
as John Patrick Shanley,
The Warehouse Theatre,
and Knighthorse Theatre
Company. Randall David
Cook ’91 directed a reading
of his play In A Town Near
Faith at the Furman Playhouse
as part of Homecoming 2013,
with a cast that included
professional actors from
Trustus Theatre in Columbia
alongside Kevin Treu (CS)
and Eiho Baba (PHL). Nick
Radel (ENG) led the talkback.
Cook’s play Pomp and
Circumstance, directed by Jay
Oney, made its world premiere
in November and included
designs by Rhett Bryson,
Margaret Caterisano, and
Gene Funderburk.
—Michelle Shaw
S
inger-songwriter Arlo Guthrie will bring his “Here Come the Kids” show, a tribute to
American folk music, to Furman University in February as part of Greenville’s “Year of
Altruism” commemoration.
Guthrie, the son of seminal American folk musician Woody Guthrie, will perform Sunday,
Feb. 16, at 2 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium.
Tickets are $20 in advance ($25 at the door), free for children under five, and $5 for youth
and students with an ID. They are available at the Timmons Arena Box Office or through
TicketMaster.
Guthrie has been performing since the 1960s and has enjoyed a successful career as a singer,
songwriter and storyteller. His latest tour features members of his family performing with him.
5
A R O U N D
Continuing Education
Like many institutions of higher learning, the Division
of Continuing Education at Furman is continuously
evaluating its programs so that we can align and
focus our efforts into areas where they are needed
the most. For a number of years Learning for You
has seen some select courses flourish, even as many
of its class offerings have experienced declining
enrollments. Our plan is to dedicate our resources
to strengthening those programs which have high
interest, and to discontinue programs which have,
for various reasons, seen declining participation
from the community. We are planning to continue
the Piano for Young People, Connections: Women
Leaders of the Upstate, SCOPES, domestic and
international travels programs, and some select
classes, but under new structures and departments,
some within and some outside of Continuing
Education. As a result, fall 2013 will be the last
official semester of Learning for You.
In other news, I am delighted to announce Beth
Crews has been appointed to serve as our director
of Undergraduate Evening Studies effective October
7. Beth has done an admirable job steering Learning
for You over the past year, and I am confident she
will bring the same passion and expertise to her
new role. I also extend my thanks and best wishes
to our stalwart Learning for You program assistants,
Amy Krause, who has taken a position outside
of Furman, and Donna Rogers, who retired on
December 31. Donna has served Furman with great
loyalty since 2003, and she will continue providing
excellent support and customer service for Learning
for You until she retires, and perhaps on occasion in
the future for continuing education.
Winter registration for OLLI begins November 19.
We have 95 courses and 50 one-time events on the
schedule and expect almost 1100 members to take
classes. OLLI also announced a new initiative, Senior
Leaders Greenville, which is a year-long program that
will educate, inspire, and encourage senior adults to
learn more about Greenville, and ways they can get
involved to ensure the senior voice in represented in
decisions being made throughout the community
The Bridges to a Brighter Future Saturday College
component is off to a great start this academic
year. On average, 80 percent of Bridges students
participate in each monthly session. In addition to
tutoring provided in Saturday College, Bridges is
partnering with Kaplan to provide SAT preparation
classes and Junior Achievement to provide financial
planning workshops. Saturday College is funded
through a grant from the Jolley Foundation.
Crews of Undergraduate Evening Studies (UES)
has been conducting a scan of the overall program,
looking toward creating process efficiencies,
garnering improved market presence, and proposing
innovative new programs. She has begun initiating
greater cross-campus collaboration with Career
Services, the University registrar, ITS, academic
deans, the Center for Collaborative Learning
& Communication, and other student services
departments. This fall, (UES) has been in the process
of hiring new adjunct faculty, proposing new
courses, and researching new degree majors and
post-baccalaureate certificate programs which have
been suggested by Joint Working Group 3.
The Center for Corporate and Professional
Development faculty and staff have been busy
providing customized corporate education programs
for business and industry. New clients this year have
included SAGE Automotive, World Acceptance
Corporation, aeSolutions, and Southern Weaving.
A new course entitled, “Mexico: A Liberal Arts
Perspective” was developed and taught by Erik
Ching, Cleve Fraser, Jeremy Cass, and Angelica
Lozano Alonso for Draexlmaier.
—Brad Bechtold
Facilities Services
Facilities Services has enjoyed a busy but productive
fall with several large construction projects at or near
completion and a robust schedule of events. Below
an update on some initiatives that you may not have
6
C A M P U S
seen or heard about but will likely be occurring in
the future.
The parking lot serving the PAC facility will soon
be renovated. Beyond the replacement of the asphalt
surface, the project will include improvements to
the storm water drainage system and the exterior
lighting levels. Unfortunately, the large Oaks in
this lot are in very poor condition and will need
replacement but new trees very well suited to these
living conditions will be installed. The lot will close
on the afternoon of December 16 and will reopen
on January 10 contingent upon weather and other
foreseen factors.
A recent donation has made possible a study
for the establishment of an arboretum on Furman’s
campus. An arboretum is a living museum where
trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated
for scientific and educational purposes. With
assistance from the Shi Center, our horticulture
staff hopes to add to the diversity of our existing
campus trees; install additional tree labels to improve
education opportunities; establish a defined tree
“trail” so species can be studied while walking; and
generally elevate the visibility of Furman’s arboreal
assets for years to come.
acquired through our statewide consortium (PASCAL)
and are from academic presses. The other 66,000
eBooks are titles that are only purchased after they
have been viewed or used a specified number of
times. This trend in eBook purchasing, known as
Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA), allows us to
provide access to more titles to our library users
without an increase in cost.
Special Collections opened a new exhibition
highlighting the collection of legendary Furman
basketball coach and athletic director J. Lyles Alley.
The exhibit will run through June 27, in the Furman
Room on the second floor of the James B. Duke
Library.
Significant progress has been made on the
Peter Wexler Digital Museum with over 4000 items
digitized. A video documentary about the project
is being created for educational and promotional
purposes.
The library will administer the MISO Survey to
faculty, staff, and students beginning in February.
This is an important tool to assess how the University
community uses our tools and services, and to
identify areas for growth.
The design process has begun for the future
addition of a sidewalk that will connect the main
campus to the Vinings apartment complex. The
2,000-foot-long lighted sidewalk will be eight feet
wide and provide safe pedestrian access to both the
Furman campus and the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
Bernie Stanton recently attended a national
conference on Risk Management in St Petersburg,
Florida, that was held by the Educational and
Institutional Insurance Administrators (EIIA) group.
Steve Long was elected to the board of directors for
the South Carolina Association of Higher Education
Facilities Officers for a three-year term.
—Michael Hawley
More information about the library can be seen
in its annual report and newsletter which is available
on the library website.
—Janis Bandelin
Library
In the fall, Outreach Services worked with an
increasing number of student groups to help
orient them to the library. This included first-year
students, transfer students, graduate students, and
international students.
Librarians have increased their work with
students by 25 percent in the past two years and
have needed teaching space designed to encourage
active, hands-on learning. To that end, one of the
library’s teaching classrooms (Library 043). The
vibrant room colors and mobile chairs have been a
hit with students.
The main library home page has been updated.
Improvements include streamlined access to the most
frequently used search tools, databases and services.
Also available are “smart” floor plans that highlight
the locations of commonly used spaces in the Library.
We recently added 164,000 new eBook titles
to the library catalog, covering a broad range of
academic disciplines, travel handbooks, and fiction.
98,000 of the titles come from a combined package
Development and Alumni
Relations
The Furman Office of Alumni Relations enjoyed
another successful year of Homecoming festivities,
with classes ending in ’3 and ’8 in reunion. In the
week following Homecoming, the development
office celebrated the official success of the $400
million Because Furman Matters campaign.
Fundraising efforts for the campaign will
continue until the end of 2013. Celebrations and
official announcements will begin in early 2014,
including a special Furman magazine campaign
wrap-up issue in February and a celebration gala
in May.
In 2014, the development office will begin
charting the course for a new campaign effort
centered on increased goals for annual giving
fundraising. The campaign will seek to promote
choice for donors, in supporting the elements of
the Furman experience that were most meaningful
for them. The goal for annual giving is increasing
to fund existing budgets and offset upcoming
budgetary challenges.
Meet our new team members:
Ashley Keene (director of Development
Systems) is a summa cum laude graduate of
the Moore School of Business and the South
Carolina Honors College at the University of South
Carolina, with a bachelor’s degree in marketing
and management. In addition, she has earned a
master’s of business administration also from the
Moore School at USC. Ashley previously worked as a
consultant for Blackbaud, Inc.
For more information or to register for
Furman Employee Wellness Programs,
please contact Kelly Frazier, via email
at [email protected].
Employees strive to improve health, well-being
I
Liz Seman (executive drector of Corporate
Engagement) has worked with the American Red
Cross, Hands on Greenville, and most recently Meals
on Wheels of Greenville. Liz is also a member of
Greenville County Council, having been elected in
2008 and again in 2012.
Sarrin Towle Warfield ’03, (assistant director
of Alumni Programs) earned BA in communication
studies, a women’s studies concentration and a
MS in organization development and coaching
certificate from the McColl School of Business at
Queens University of Charlotte. She recently served
as associate director of Residence Life at Queens
University of Charlotte.
—Kate Dabbs
Marketing and Public Relations
We have had a many new additions this fall.
First, Taylor De Lench joined our staff as
videographer in October. A graduate of Skidmore
College (Saratoga Springs, New York), Taylor
earned a BA degree in sociology and has worked as
videographer, editor, and writer since 2006. Before
moving to Greenville, Taylor and his wife, Lauren,
lived in Chattanooga where he was the director of
Lench Films, a firm he founded.
Jessica Kalbarczyk joined our group last
month. She was formerly employed at Samsung
Electronics as a Social Media Analyst. Originally
from Buffalo, she holds a BA in Communications
from Canisius College and a MA in Integrated
Marketing Communications from St. Bonaventure
University. She currently lives in Simpsonville with her
husband, Kyle.
Damien Pierce and Ryan Fisher recently
attended the Confab Higher Education conference
in Atlanta. The conference brought together
173 higher education institutions from across the
country to share best practices related to content
development across social media, email marketing
and university websites.
Lindsay Niedringhaus ’07 and her husband,
Steven welcomed this first child, Henry, into the
world on August 20. After a maternity leave, Lindsay
returned to work in November. Carol Winchester
’02 performed outstanding work this fall by pulling
double duty and filling in for Lindsay during her time
away. Also, Damien Pierce and his wife, Renee
Chosed celebrated the birth of their first child, Ari,
on December 3.
—John Roberts
n the fall of 2012, Forrest Stuart (Financial Aid)
decided to begin an exercise program. “I was
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2008 and used
medication and injections to control my blood sugar
for several years. I had been told that exercise would
affect my body’s use of insulin, but I was skeptical,”
he recalled.
“For me, the hardest part was the decision to
start. There is nothing about exercise that I find
attractive, except for the after effects. So once I
admitted that and found out that others felt the
same way, I felt that I could push through.” Stuart
committed to use the elliptical trainer in the Herman
W. Lay Physical Activities Center (PAC) during his
lunch hour. “I enjoyed the social aspects of that time
more than I thought I would.”
With the influence of his daughters, Stuart also
began to adopt a healthier diet. He added a simple
resistance-training program and other forms of
aerobic exercise to provide variety.
Over time, his blood work improved significantly,
and his physician decided to discontinue all of his
diabetic medications. Stuart was astounded by the
results of his recent physical examination. He proudly
proclaimed, “I have not taken any medication in
three months. I’ve lost 17 pounds, and my blood
glucose and hemoglobin A1c are now in the healthy
range. My doctor told me that I am not even
considered ‘pre-diabetic’ anymore.”
Stuart is one of a growing number of employees
who are taking great strides to improve their
personal well-being. The Department of Health
Sciences is proud to offer a wide variety of worksite
wellness resources to assist employees who desire to
adopt healthier behaviors.
Furman University Eating Lean (FUEL)
FUEL is a twelve-week lifestyle intervention offered to
faculty, staff, and spouses at no cost. It is designed
to improve nutrient intake, body composition, and
reduce health outcomes associated with chronic
disease, based on findings from scientific research.
Approximately forty participants may enroll each
semester. The next session will be held from January
through April 2014.
A weekly health education class provides
strategies to improve diet, exercise habits, weight
management, and chronic disease risk. Classes
will be held Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m.–12:15
p.m. and 1:30–2:15 p.m., and participants may
attend either class. FUEL employs a simple platebased model to guide food intake. Participants are
encouraged to conform most meals to the FUEL
plate, which consists of ½ vegetables and fruits,
¼ whole grains or potatoes, and ¼ lean proteins.
This low-energy density diet allows participants
to easily improve multiple aspects of health while
feeling satisfied throughout the day. Participants
overwhelmingly prefer this simple eating strategy
over other approaches such as portion restriction or
counting calories.
Stoneview Internal Medicine provides FUEL
participants with blood work analyses that include
total cholesterol, low density lipoproteins, very low
density lipoproteins, triglycerides, glucose, glycalated
hemoglobin, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein.
The Department of Health Sciences conducts body
composition analyses through Dual Energy X-Ray
Absorptiometry which is the most comprehensive
and accurate assessment in the industry.
Throughout the program, Stoneview Internal
Medicine is available to offer physician consultations
with FUEL participants at the employee onsite
clinic as needed, and health science major interns
are available to provide individualized exercise
training sessions.
FIT Rx Individualized Exercise Training
The Department of Health Sciences is proud
to announce a new offering for 2014—FIT Rx.
Twelve health sciences majors will participate in an
internship in Individualized Exercise Prescription.
During the internship, students will explore and
discuss the text The Exercise Professionals Guide to
Optimizing Health: Strategies for Preventing and
Reducing Chronic Disease. As a major component
of their coursework, interns will be available to offer
individualized exercise training sessions for at least
thirty-five faculty and staff members at no cost.
Spouses and children over age 13 will also be eligible
to participate if space allows.
Participants will receive individualized exercise
training and be offered assessments of fitness, body
composition, and dietary intake to gauge progress.
Beginners will receive instruction, encouragement
to progress gradually, and support throughout
the process. Individualized exercise training would
initially be offered three times per week for at least
two weeks and then continue on a weekly
or monthly basis as needed. Assessments will
be offered at the end of the semester for employees
to track progress and evaluate the effectiveness
of their program.
Beginner Body Fit Exercise Class for Faculty/Staff
To support the needs of our beginner exercisers,
new introductory exercise classes will be offered
exclusively for faculty and staff in the PAC dance
studio. The classes will encompass aerobic,
resistance, and flexibility training and incorporate
modifications for those with limitations. By the end
of the semester, participants will also receive an
orientation to the Furman Fitness Center equipment
and provided with guidance with exercise program
design. The Beginner Body Fit class led by Kelly
Frazier will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays
from 12:30–1:15 p.m. during the spring term.
Registration is required. Employees may attend the
introductory class for one entire semester at no cost
and will then be encouraged to utilize other campus
resources to stay active.
The Furman Fitness Center
The Herman W. Lay Physical Activities Center offers
many opportunities for employees and their families
to be physically active. The Furman Fitness Center
offers 6,000 square feet of a wide variety of aerobic,
resistance, and flexibility training equipment. A
heated 25-yard pool is open for lap swimming,
recreational swimming, and group exercise classes.
Indoor racquetball courts and a 12,000 square
foot basketball gymnasium provide plenty of
opportunities for recreation.
Furman Group Exercise Program
The Furman Group Exercise Program currently
offers fifteen group exercise classes per week for
the Furman campus and community. These classes
include Boot Camp, Indoor Cycling, Body Fit Weight
Training, Pilates, Yoga, Zumba, and Aqua Power.
Classes are offered in the early morning, lunch
hour, and late afternoon in the PAC. Employees
and dependents may purchase a discounted pass
for $55 for fourteen weeks of unlimited class access.
Please visit www.furmanfitness.com for a current
class schedule.
Corporate Shield Races for Runners and Walkers
The Greenville Track Club Corporate Shield Program
was designed to promote teamwork, running and
walking, and friendly competition among area
organizations. Furman employees and their families
may run or walk to participate. Events are hosted
throughout the year and range from two miles to
8K races. The Furman team accumulates points
for every participant who completes the event,
regardless of finish time. The Furman Institute for
Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) is available
to provide a training program for employees who
would like to begin or improve a running program.
Please visit www.greenvilletrackclub.com or contact
Scott Murr via email at [email protected] for
more information.
—Kelly Frazier
Health Sciences Professor and
Wellness Program Coordinator
7
Nonprofit Org.
U.S.Postage
3300 Poinsett Highway
Greenville, South Carolina 29613
PAID
Greenville, SC
Permit No.80
THE FURMAN FORUM
What should Furman’s New Year’s resolution be?
Furman should make a
resolution to increase
awareness of global issues on
campus and increase outlets
for students to participate in
finding solutions.
We should have a midnight
breakfast once a week.
—Cameron Smith
Student Organizations and
Greek Life
Open up Einstein’s till late at
night.
—Lake Rabenold,
senior
I’d like to see more live music
events inside Trone Center
during the colder months.
—Andrew Cantor,
Senior
Somehow, the powers that be
need to make it snow so we can
all enjoy some snow days...we
haven’t had snow in two years
—Kim Keefer,
Leadership Programs
—Sarah Killebrew
senior
A note from the editor
Food Deserts
INSIDE
FURMAN
A
s December came to a close, our office said so long to
Roxanne Chase, retiring after 16 years.
Roxanne is an extremely talented designer. For eight
years, this publication benefited from her artist’s eye and
creative genius. She was the architect of its redesign in
2005. Along the way, Inside Furman, Furman Magazine,
and many other publications and print materials she
touched have collected many design awards.
Roxanne was trained in New York City and also worked
in Greece and Washington, D.C., before settling in South
Carolina and later joining Furman in 2001. Through her
time at Furman she has been a tireless champion of the
Furman brand. Roxanne’s love for the University extends
beyond Marketing. She mentored students and has
been deeply involved in the National Coalition Building
Institute (NCBI).
We will miss her tireless work ethic and passion for
design but wish her well as she and her husband Mike,
a professor emeritus at Clemson, open this new chapter
in thier lives. If you need to contact Roxanne, you’ll have
to do so by telephone. She promised Mike to stay away
from computers and email for a while.
8
Published quarterly by
Marketing & Public Relations
at Furman University.
with Weidenbenner to create a mobile produce market called
Good To Go Greenville to serve the Greater Sullivan and West
Greenville communities.
“It’s like a farmer’s market to go, where we sell the
produce in these areas at a reasonable price,” said Paulette
Dunn, executive director of Loaves & Fishes. “Dan at
Mill Village had the produce to donate, we had the
refrigerated trucks that we use for our food rescue,
and that led to the idea.”
Though it is too early to tell how far the effort will
go toward wiping out Greenville County’s Food Deserts,
Dr. Powers said she expects it at least to make enough
difference to count.
“When I started at Furman seven years ago, I wondered,
‘What information do we need to improve the food landscape
in Greenville?’” she said. “And I want this effort to make a
change for the better in all Greenville County communities.”
— by Clark Leech
John Roberts
editor
Brian Faulkenberry
designer
Clark Leech
Tina Underwood
writers
Jeremy Fleming
photographer
Online archive
www.furman.edu/if