CSU, Chico News

The Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program of the College of Engineering at California State University, Chico has partnered with Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) to create the first ever CSU, Chico CIM Summer Field School on Alcatraz Island this summer. Five select students from the CIM program began work on the project June 7 and are living in restored officers barracks in the Marin Headlands. They are working fulltime as National Park volunteers on Alcatraz Island throughout the 10-week internship, preserving and repairing deteriorated concrete structures, some of which date to the 1850s.

The National Historic Landmark Alcatraz Island, the Presidio and many historic batteries and sites are within the GGNRA, the largest urban national park in the world. The GGNRA encompasses more than 75,000 acres and 28 miles of coastline, an area nearly two and a half times the size of San Francisco.

Andrew Billingsley, Stig Strombeck, Jonathan Hall, Bryan James and Trevor Prater were selected to represent the CIM program and the College of Engineering throughout this summer’s pilot program. They will be working with college faculty, invited industry experts and National Parks Service personnel to perform historic concrete evaluation, repairs and structural analysis as well as analyzing and preparing project scopes of work for both future CIM Field School students and the National Parks Service personnel to perform.

This tremendous opportunity has been funded by a cultural resources stewardship grant through the GGNRA and generous contributions by CIM patron supporters, including BASF Construction as a major sponsor, providing students with both room and board and a living stipend. CSU, Chico and GGNRA plan to extend this pilot program into an annual CIM Summer Field School, allowing a continuing program through which university students can work side-by-side with experts that represent both the cultural and structural facets of the concrete repair and preservation industries.

This opportunity extends the sustainability focus of the CSU, Chico CIM program through first-hand experience with construction practices, applications, methods and materials that lead to environmentally friendly, culturally responsible and durable new structures and rehabilitation of existing structures.

While on Alcatraz Island, the five students will be completing a mandatory internship requirement that is designed to immerse students in a real and practical workplace, better preparing them for technical and managerial work upon completion of the bachelor’s degree.

Graduating students in the Concrete Industry Management program receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Concrete Industry Management with a minor in Business Administration. This multidisciplinary program prepares men and women for a wide variety of professional careers in the concrete industry and addresses the growing need for technical managers in the field.

For more information, please contact Tanya Wattenburg Komas, director/program coordinator, CIM, at 530-898-4487 or tkomas@csuchico.edu.

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It’s something to think about: By optimizing your brain function, can you develop the qualities of a magnificent mind enjoyed by the world’s most successful and happiest people? Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a renowned brain expert, will address this question when he presents “A Magnificent Mind at Any Age” tomorrow, June 22, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Neighborhood Church, 2801 Notre Dame Blvd., in Chico.

Amen will show how many of the traditional approaches to overcoming the mind-centered challenges that hold people back either do not work or may make problems worse. “The true key to satisfaction and success at any age,” he says, “is a healthy brain.” The presentation will focus on the aging mind, including such issues as Alzheimer’s and memory loss.

Everything starts with the brain, Amen emphasizes: how you think, feel, interact with others, and how well you succeed in realizing your goals and dreams. When your brain works right, so do you. When it’s out of balance, you feel frustrated or worse. Yet, amid all the advice that bombards us daily about how to keep the rest of our bodies strong and healthy, we hear very little about how to keep the most complex and magnificent organ of all—the human brain—in top working order. Amen will pinpoint specific ways to tailor behavior, nutrition and lifestyle to effectively deal with common mental challenges.

Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist, brain-imaging specialist, author, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and CEO and medical director of Amen Clinics, Inc. He has appeared on The Dr. Phil Show and Oprah and has also written and produced three successful fundraising shows for public television. He has written 23 books, including A Magnificent Mind and Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.

Doors for this 1 p.m. event open at noon. Registration is required by calling 800-995-0878 or registering online at www.magnificentmind.eventbrite.com. There is no cost to attend; however, donations will be accepted at the door. Limited continuing education units will be available for $75.

Passages Mountain Caregiver Resource Center is hosting this event. It is co-sponsored by the Brain Injury Coalition in Chico.

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The Bernard Osher Foundation has awarded a $1 million endowment to CSU, Chico Regional & Continuing Education to provide scholarships for reentry students whose studies were interrupted for at least five years by circumstances beyond their control, and who now want to resume their studies at CSU, Chico. These students enter a wide range of degree programs in fields such as engineering, nursing, social work and communications.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Osher Foundation has supported this scholarship program at CSU, Chico. In each of the three previous years, Regional & Continuing Education applied for and was awarded $50,000 in Osher Reentry Scholarship Grants. To date, $150,000 in Osher scholarship have been distributed directly to 38 CSU, Chico students.

In March of this year, Continuing Education was invited by the Osher Foundation to apply for the $1 million endowment. The award is accompanied by a $50,000 bridge grant that will provide undergraduate reentry students scholarships for the 2010-11 academic year. The endowment is in addition to the $1 million endowment awarded to CSU, Chico to fund the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

“The Bernard Osher Foundation endowment will fund reentry students for decades to come,” said Debra Barger, dean of CSU, Chico Regional & Continuing Education. “Continuing Education successfully serves many different students in varied ways. The generous support of the Osher Foundation continues to be a bright beacon of hope for undergraduate reentry students seeking to fulfill their educational dreams. We are thrilled that CSU, Chico has been honored with this endowment.”

The Bernard Osher Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 1977 by Bernard Osher, a respected businessman and community leader. Osher, a patron of education and the arts, is well known as “the quiet philanthropist.” A native of Maine, he pursued a successful career in business, including work at Oppenheimer & Company in New York; serving as founding director of World Savings, the second largest savings institution in the United States; and purchase of the fine art auction house of Butterfield & Butterfield in 1970, which he grew and sold to eBay in 1999. Having served on a number of philanthropic and non-profit boards, Osher is an active community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area, the recipient of several honorary degrees, a serious student of opera and an ardent fly fisherman.

The Foundation seeks to improve quality of life through the support of post-secondary scholarships, lifelong learning institutes and integrative medicine programs. “Older scholars often have family and financial obligations greater than those of traditionally-aged students, and, at the same time, they have less access to financial aid,” said Mary Bitterman, president of The Bernard Osher Foundation. “(We) began the expansion of support for ‘reentry’ students in 2005 after being inspired by programs at Mills and Dominican Colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area and noting the tremendous potential represented by older students seeking their first baccalaureate degree.”

There are currently 73 universities and colleges in 30 states and the District of Columbia that receive scholarships from the Osher Reentry Scholarship Program. Four other CSU campuses have also received endowments. For additional information about Osher Reentry Scholarships at CSU, Chico, visit rce.csuchico.edu/osherscholarships/.

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Seven years ago, third-generation olive and almond grower Merritt Erickson approached Jim Postma, a chemist at California State University, Chico, with a question about olive preservation. That question, “How could olives be kept fresh for shipping to individuals who wanted to cure their own?” led them to an answer that has ramifications for not just olives, but many food products.

Their work together has resulted in the formulation of a natural product that removes salmonella and E. coli from fruits, vegetables and nuts quickly and safely. They’ve completed lab testing, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval and are certified by National Organic Program regulations.

Erickson provided funding through the University Research Foundation for one of Postma’s microbiology students, James Conroy, to do preliminary research into finding a solution to preserve olives for short periods of time before they were cured. A vinegar and benzoic acid solution was then used in the industry. Postma and the student decided to look at vinegar, citric acid and ascorbic acid and were somewhat amazed by the results of their research—the olives kept for months and retained their color and texture.

During the seven years of the project, students Amber Ratcliff and Kevin Parsons also helped with the research.

To pass FDA testing, the chemists needed to prove that their formula killed pathogens. When test results came back from California Microbiological Consulting Inc., the pathogen kill was “5-log,” significantly greater than the industry standard. “That was a very high number,” said Postma. “The standard for the industry was a 4-log [log stands for logarithm], which means leaving only one part per 10,000. Five-log means leaving only one part per 100,000.”

About the time they were getting these test results, the almond industry was having trouble with salmonella contamination in raw almonds. That gave them a new question to work with, which was whether their solution could be used to sterile raw almonds. Erickson worked with the Almond Board of California and Blue Diamond Growers, which tested the solution on almonds with positive results.

The significance of their findings to the food industry is enormous, as growers and processors deal with containing bacterial outbreaks that cost them millions of dollars. The significance to the consumer is that there is a more natural and less toxic way to decontaminate food than the chlorine that is currently used on a majority of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The University of Illinois is currently doing trials on the product. Earthbound Farm, a big grower of lettuce in the Salinas area, was already working with scientists at the university on contamination problems when Erickson contacted them with their solution. The results will be available in the very near future.

Erickson is thrilled with the results of his collaboration with Postma and wants other farmers and growers to be aware of CSU, Chico as a place with resources to solve similar problems. “I had no idea how to proceed with getting an answer to my original question and couldn’t have done it without the help of Jim and his students,” said Erickson.

Postma also is pleased with the collaboration and the opportunity it gave students to do some basic research with far-reaching and practical applications.

Next week, UC Davis will hold its first food safety conference, which Erickson plans to attend. It will give him a chance to share the results of the research and the product, called “Organic Chico Wash,” with food industry representatives from across the nation.

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California State University, Chico’s award-winning Summer Orientation program begins today for the first of 20 sessions for new students enrolling this fall.

As of this week, 2,020 new students and 1,419 accompanying family members had signed up for one of the sessions taking place in June or July.

Changes this summer include more sessions and information geared for transfer students, who constitute a higher percentage of sign-ups than in prior years, Orientation Coordinator Rebecca Berner said. One emphasis is to get more transfers to think about the benefits of getting involved in clubs, activities and programs like Study Abroad, she added.

To date, the overall number of sign-ups for summer orientation is down from last year, Berner said, though she expects more sign-ups to come. In particular, she is seeing fewer parents and family members signed up. She thinks the economy, the higher number of transfer students as opposed to freshmen, and the relatively recent Preview Day for prospective students and parents April 10 could be responsible.

Much of the program’s success stems from the contributions of the student staff, Berner said. Two student co-leaders plus 26 other student staff members lead tours and activities, present information and answer questions. The students are recruited in the fall and take a class in the spring to train for the position.

In 2008, student staff won two awards at the National Orientation Directors Association regional meeting in Anaheim. In 2004, the Summer Orientation program received a High Quality Learning Environments award from CSU, Chico’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. CSU, Chico has had summer orientation for more than 30 years.

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A new partnership between the National Humanities Center (NHC) and the Center for Regional & Continuing Education at California State University, Chico provides California K-12 teachers the opportunity to earn university credits for completing online professional development seminars from the NHC.

The National Humanities Center is the only major independent American institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities. It is distinctive in its commitment to linking scholarship to improved teaching and providing teachers with new materials and instructional strategies to make them more effective in the classroom and rekindle their enthusiasm for the subjects they teach.

The NHC online professional development seminars are taught by leading scholars from across the nation and offer concentrated study of specific historical topics. Seminars are live and online, and enable teachers to interact with each other as well as with the faculty scholar. Upcoming topics include How to Read a Slave Narrative; Southern Women and the Civil War; and Buffalo Bill, American Idol.

Through an existing collaboration with the California Department of Education, NHC seminars are free for California educators. This represents a $35 tuition savings for each seminar. Upon completion of five seminars, teachers can apply to CSU, Chico for one hour of University credit for a nominal $60 per unit fee. The total cost of only $60 per credit hour represents a 75 percent savings on a series that would otherwise cost teachers $235.

The NHC offers these seminars on an ongoing basis. The latest schedules and information are available at nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/. Teachers interested in participating should contact Caryn Koplik at ckoplik@nationalhumanitiescenter.org.

To receive university credit, participants should apply directly through CSU, Chico Regional & Continuing Education at http://rce.csuchico.edu/teachers/nhc.asp.

About the National Humanities Center

The National Humanities Center, located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, is a privately incorporated independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978 the Center has awarded fellowships to scholars in the humanities, whose work at the Center has resulted in the publication of more than 1,200 books in all fields of humanistic study. The Center also sponsors programs to strengthen the teaching of the humanities in secondary and higher education.
Web: http://www.nationalhumanitiescenter.org

About CSU, Chico Center for Regional & Continuing Education

As the anchor institution in Northern California, CSU, Chico serves a 12-county service area, the largest in the 23-campus California State University system. The mission of the Center for Regional & Continuing Education (RCE) at CSU, Chico is to strengthen and expand the resources of the University to respond to lifelong learning needs through distance and online education, teacher professional development, accredited certificates and degrees, and a wide variety of personal enrichment and professional development courses and conferences.
Web: http://rce.csuchico.edu

The Society for Simulation in Healthcare announced the accreditation of the Rural Northern California Clinical Simulation Center, a center established by the California State University, Chico School of Nursing in partnership with Enloe Medical Center and Feather River Hospital.

The “Rural SimCenter,” as it is known, was accredited in the area of education and teaching. The accreditation process for simulation centers is new. Only 10 centers throughout the world were selected by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare to undergo accreditation this year.

The Rural SimCenter is located at 560 Cohasset Road at the Enloe Medical Center Cohasset Campus.

“The Rural SimCenter is an exemplary rural education center, and the fact that it was chosen to be one of the first Simulation Centers selected for review is a testament to the quality of their educational programs,” said Sherry Fox, professor and former director of the School of Nursing.

The SimCenter provides a realistic environment for health care personnel to practice complex skills and protocols using computer-controlled mannequins as well as “standardized patients” — volunteers who are trained to manifest specific health problems.

Scenarios of many different health events and conditions can be practiced and refined, with no harm or inconvenience to real patients. Simulation is perfect for providing nurses and others with the opportunity to work with critical events that may be seen rarely in actual practice, but which require extensive training and practice to develop efficient responses.

Simulation centers offer the potential to increase safety for patients, improving team communication and speeding up the time it takes for nurses to respond in critical events.

The lifelike mannequins can be given medications, resuscitated, and have procedures performed on them. They can also be programmed to change their breathing and heart rates on cue along with other physical changes as well as programmed for many different emergency situations.

The actions of the team are recorded, and participants review the tapes to “debrief,” so they can identify how performance can be improved. Much like the use of simulators for training pilots to respond to critical events, simulation is becoming a standard for the training of health care personnel.

The Chico SimCenter has been in operation for three years. During that time, more than 5,000 simulation trainings have occurred for nursing students and nursing staff at Enloe and Feather River, as well as for pharmacists, physicians and emergency responders.

Under the direction of CSU, Chico Professor Becky Damazo, the center has grown and gained national recognition. The center provides education to faculty and staff educators from all disciplines who are interested in learning to use simulation methodology, a specialized process that focuses on adult learning.

The SimCenter serves as a training site for nursing faculty throughout the region and beyond. The center has trained nursing faculty from Butte College, Mendocino College, Pacific Union College, Shasta College, College of the Siskiyous, Humboldt State University and American River College, as well as faculty from other states.

“Accreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare reflects the quality of the Chico simulation center in meeting the training needs for health care personnel for the Northern California region,” said Fox.

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Gateway Science Museum will debut its new Summer Science Exhibit beginning Monday, June 14, 2010, when it reopens with new summer hours as well as its first kids’ summer camps, Gateway Discovery Camps.

The Summer Science Exhibit is a collection of interactive activities that explore the fields of science, math and psychology through hands-on activities. It will feature more than 50 stations allowing visitors to explore the basic principles of sound, light, electricity and magnetism, and spinning things. The Shadow Wall, Dancing Chain and the Air Cannon, courtesy of the California State University, Chico Department of Mathematics and Statistics, are just a few of the interactive activities Summer Science will have on display.

Summer Science will also feature the Museum of the Mind exhibit, courtesy of the Chico State Department of Psychology. Museum of the Mind is an exhibit that demonstrates in an interactive way, how the mind works. It examines higher mental processes such as attention, perception, memory, language, decision-making and problem solving.

Students from Chico State’s Cognitive Psychology courses collaborated on interactive displays that explore mental processes. Visitors will have an opportunity to discover how their own minds work through the activities and demonstrations.

Gateway Science Museum will be open 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Monday – Thursday, June 14 to July 22, and is located at 625 Esplanade. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children and free for museum members.

For more information, please visit www.gatewayscience.org.

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Construction of the Student Services Center Plaza and adjacent First Street renovation this summer will give a new look to the western end of California State University, Chico’s central campus area.

New trees and other landscaping, outdoor seating and additional amenities will connect the plaza to pedestrian-only First Street as well as the busy Bell Memorial Union and Meriam Library buildings that are in close proximity.

The approximately $1.1 million for design and construction of the plaza and surrounding area is the completion of the $46.8 million Student Services Center project. The building’s exterior and interior were completed in 2008, but the project’s final phase was suspended due to a 2009 freeze on disbursement of state General Obligation and Lease Revenue bonds used to fund CSU capital projects.

Features of the project include:

• Tables, chairs and umbrellas for seating that complement outdoor seating at the Bell Memorial Union
• New light fixtures with banners highlighting University achievements
• Brick entryway at First Street facing Warner Street
• Fruit tree plantings along First Street that echo the orchard tended by Chico founder John Bidwell
• Concrete tree planters that feature aromatic sensory gardens

Preliminary work on the project has already begun. Completion is scheduled for Aug. 13.

“The Student Services Center Plaza and First Street project will only add to our already beautiful and inviting campus,” said Vice President for Business and Finance Lori Hoffman. “With the addition of the Student Services Center, the western end of campus has become a main entry into Chico State. Increasing the use and attractiveness of the plaza and First Street area will be a very big part of this new campus gateway.”

Otto Construction, which built the recently completed Wildcat Recreation Center and Gateway Science Museum, will be the design-build contractor. The design of the project was by Williams and Paddon Architects.

A selection committee chose the Otto proposal over other bidders for the plaza project. Members of the committee were Hoffman, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Sandra Flake, Vice President for Student Affairs Drew Calandrella, Manager of Facilities Construction Lynda Miracle, Interim Manager of Facilities Planning and Design Sharon Millman, and Warren Jacobs, University Architect, and Jay Jefferson, Construction Services, Capital Planning, Design and Construction, CSU Chancellor’s Office.

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California State University, Chico political science professor Diana Dwyre has given a number of prestigious lectures and presentations in Australia this spring in her role as 2009-2010 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Political Science at Australia National University.

The Distinguished Chair position is intended to increase the awareness of the study of American politics and government in Australia and promote comparative and collaborative research in political science between Australia and the United States.

Australia National University is located in Canberra, Australia’s capital.

The Fulbright Distinguished Chair Program is viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholars Program, which is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department. More than 800 Fulbright scholars are selected every year, but only 39 are named distinguished chairs.

Dwyre is an expert on campaign finance issues and has co-authored two books on the topic. She will be returning to CSU, Chico for the fall 2010 semester.

Below is a schedule of Dwyre’s recent and upcoming public talks, presentations and briefings:

April 8: Invited by U.S. Embassy to conduct a briefing on U.S. politics for a delegation of the Australian Political Exchange Council traveling to the United States.

April 9: Invited by the U.S. Embassy to brief Simon Every, who was traveling to the United States. Every is chief of staff of Australian Senator Joe Ludwig, Cabinet Secretary, Special Minister of State, Manager of Government Business in the Senate, and Senator for Queensland.

April 20: Seminar for the Political Science Department, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania.

April 21: Presentation to the Tasmania Fulbright Alumni Association and the Tasmanian Government Training Consortium, which included Deputy Premier of Tasmania Lara Giddings.

April 28: Testified before Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety on campaign finance issues.

May 3: Lecture at University of Melbourne sponsored by the University of Melbourne Center for Public Policy, Melbourne, Australia.

May 7: Lecture at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

May 12: Lecture at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

May 21: Lecture in the Australian Senate Occasional Lecture Series, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia.

May 28: Presentation for Australia Parliament research librarians on U.S. and Australian campaign finance issues.

June 4: Seminar at TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

June 24: Seminar at the United States Studies Center, University of Sydney and various events with the U.S Consulate and the Fulbright Commission in Sydney, Australia.

Dwyre worked on campaign finance policy in the U.S. Congress while serving as the William A. Steiger American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 1997-1998. She received her PhD in political science and public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1994. She has been teaching at CSU, Chico since 1997, and she served as chair of the Department of Political Science from 2004 to 2008.

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