Faculty/Staff Accomplishments and News Briefs 4/11/18

In this issue, we celebrate the accomplishments of faculty and staff in biological sciences, business, facilities, foreign languages and literatures, and political science. Another edition of Easy Access, accessibility tips from the assistant director for disability services, is featured in News Briefs.

Director of Facilities Services Sharon Campbell will present with Jacob Snyder of Siemens at the N.C. Energy Conference at NC State on April 17. Their presentation will be on the Meredith Energy Conservation process, success, and in particular the Demand Response project for chilled water that was completed in 2014. This project has reduced Meredith’s electrical consumption for generating Central Plant chilled water for air conditioning by 31.2% and costs by 29.8% YTD.  The project goal was a 30% reduction and the campus has started to exceed that this year as Facilities Services has been able to continue to tweak the system even while adding the first floor of Johnson Hall and the Belk Dining kitchen to areas served by the Central Plant chilled water system.

Professor of Biological Sciences Francie Cuffney presented at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Annual Sessions and Exhibits in March.  The presentation was made to the AFASA group (Admissions Directors for dental schools)  on Trends in Undergraduate Interest in Dental Careers.  Dr. Cuffney is President-elect of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions and acts as liaison to ADEA for NAAHP.   In her role with ADEA she serves on the task force for Applications and Admissions and the GoDental advisory group.

Students in Instructor of Biology Susan Gardner’s BIO 446 participated in the East Cary Middle School Health Science Career Fair on March 29. Hailey Price, Jen Trojak, Sarah Ainsley, and Allie Ward presented a poster on their class project, talked about being Meredith students, and helped the middle school students learn how to use micropipettors.

Adjunct Instructor of Foreign Languages and Literatures Grace Huey-Yuh Lin had an article published in the Journal of Literature and Art Studies this month. In the article, “Nature as Harmony: The Foundation of Chinese Poetry,” she argues that throughout Chinese history, with the varied external conditions, Chinese poetry is foundational on nature itself. “It is further argued that nature itself equates to inner and outer harmony. Three well-known poets, Wang Wei (706-761) in Tang Dynasty (618-907), Su Shi (1037-1101) and Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) in Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), were featured. As compared to Tang Dynasty, it has been argued that Northern Song Dynasty is in the state of great political instability. Yet regardless of the external conditions, the poetry of these three poets is consistently foundational on inner and outer harmony.”

Assistant Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association meeting in Chicago, on April 7. She presented a paper co-authored with Professor of Political Science David McLennan titled “Understanding the Pipeline for Women: A Study of Women and Appointed Office.” This paper discusses Manzo and McLennan’s ongoing study of what factors impact women’s decisions to put themselves forward for public office, which is important because 60% of women who run for office serve in appointed office first. Manzo’s student, Mary Kolisnichenko, presented a poster at the same conference. Her poster, “How Mean Are We? Polarization in a 2016 Swing State,” demonstrated that people are more willing to be meaner when talking about the opposing party when writing online versus answering questions via phone.

Associate Professor of Finance Bing Yu was asked by WalletHub.com to participate in a panel discussion about issues related to the best use of credit cards. WalletHub.com is one of the leading outlets covering personal finance industry. The discussion provided such advice as the best way to use the 0% intro rate, the optimal credit card payment, and selection of credit cards.

News Briefs

Easy Access—Resources for Faculty and Staff

In addition to the accessibility training resources on Atomic Learning, the internet has countless videos, webpages, and documents through which you can learn more about Universal Design and creating course content accessible to all students.

Recently, Laura Fine, English Department Chair, was struggling with the Accessibility Checker in Word. In case you experience a similar challenge, she discovered that the document was running in “compatibility mode” because it was likely created in an older version of Word. She then saved the document as a .docx and successfully applied the Accessibility Checker at that point. Make sure your document is saved as a .docx file before using the Accessibility Checker. This particular video would not have helped Dr. Fine, but in case you’re not even sure what the Accessibility Checker is, this 90-second video might help you.

If you have 7 minutes to spare, watch “Word 2013 & 2016: Requirements to Make a Document Accessible” to learn simple tips and tools for creating ADA-compliant documents. –Submitted by Carolyn C. Koning, M.Ed. Assistant Director for Disability Services