FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2009

Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Dave Waddell
Department of Journalism
530-898-4782

The Orion Wins 11th National Pacemaker Award for Journalistic Excellence

The Orion, California State University, Chico’s student newspaper, has won the National Pacemaker Award, widely considered the highest honor in college journalism, for an 11th time.

Pacemaker winners were announced Oct. 31 at the National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas. The Orion was the only newspaper from a four-year college or university in California to win a Pacemaker this year.

At the convention, The Orion also was awarded its second Online National Pacemaker Award in three years, and its print edition placed second in the convention’s Best of Show competition.

The Orion’s 11th Pacemaker plaque was accepted by fall 2009 semester managing editor Jennifer Siino, a junior journalism major who graduated from Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks.

In 2005, The Orion was inducted into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame for its record of Pacemaker achievements and has since continued adding to them.

“Only three times in the past 21 years has The Orion not been a Pacemaker finalist, so that’s a long period of consistent journalistic excellence that’s now headed into a third decade,” said Dave Waddell, The Orion’s faculty adviser. “It was very exciting to hear our name called again as a winner.”

The Associated Collegiate Press began the Pacemaker awards in 1927. The Orion, which was founded in 1975 and is a part of CSU, Chico’s nationally accredited Department of Journalism, won its first Pacemaker in the 1988-89 academic year. The award presented in Austin was for five issues published during the 2008-09 academic year, when Nicole Williams of Livermore and Genny McLaren of Visalia were the paper’s top editors and Dan Doxtater of Redwood City was its art director.

Judges select Pacemaker winners based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics.

The Poynter Institute, a school and resource for journalists located in St. Petersburg, Fla., judged this year’s Pacemaker awards. This year’s contest attracted 228 entries from across the country, according to the Associated Collegiate Press.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2009

Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Lori Beth Way,
Department of Political Science
530-898-5737

Award-winning Expert on Men and Violence to Give Address

Jackson Katz, a ground-breaking and internationally recognized expert on men and violence, will give a talk at California State University, Chico Friday, Nov. 13, in the BMU Auditorium.

The address, “Men, Women, Sex and Violence: a Multimedia Presentation,” will be at 1:30 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Professor Lori Beth Way, Department of Political Science, at 898-5737, lway@csuchico.edu.

Katz is the founder of Northeastern University’s Mentors in Violence Program, the first large-scale effort to utilize high school, college and professional athletes to reduce men’s violence against women. Launched in 1993, the MVP program is now the largest gender violence prevention program in college and professional athletics.

In 1997, Katz started an unprecedented gender violence prevention program in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2000-2003, he served on the U.S. Secretary of the Defense’s Task Force on Domestic Violence in the military.

Katz has created award-winning educational videos for young people, including “Wrestling with Manhood” and “Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity,” chosen as one of 2000’s best videos for young adults by the American Library Association.

Katz has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, ABC News 20/20 and other programs. He is the author of “The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help.” Katz will have books on sale and will be available to sign books following his address.

A former high school football player, Katz became the first man at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to earn a minor in women’s studies. He holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD from UCLA.

Katz’s talk is being sponsored by the Lantis University Professorship and Safe Place, a violence prevention office at CSU, Chico funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Katz’s visit is a part of the annual conference on fatherhood taking place Nov. 13-14 in the BMU Auditorium. For more information or to register contact the conference representative in your area: Butte County—Peggy Mitchell, Butte County Local Child Care Planning Council, 532-5707 pmitchel@bcoe.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2009

Joe Wills
530-898-4143

Student Volunteers Poised to Set New Records, Top $1 Million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital

California State University, Chico’s Acker Gym will be bursting with students Monday, Nov. 9, as money is raised for children’s cancer research at Up ‘til Dawn, the biggest single night of volunteer service on campus.

The event raises money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Last year more than 2,300 students and other campus community members filled the gym writing letters to friends and family requesting donations for the famed children’s hospital, located in Memphis, Tenn.

For four years running, CSU, Chico has been the top collegiate fund-raiser for St. Jude, and is set this year to be the first campus to go over $1 million in fund raising.

Last year CSU, Chico raised approximately $204,000, and has raised more than $880,000 for St. Jude’s over the past decade. CSU, Chico has set collegiate records for dollars raised in one year and number of letters sent out to potential donors.

In August, CSU, Chico students and advisers received awards from St. Jude for having the outstanding fund-raising event, overall program, program advisors and fund-raising total.

The ninth annual Up ‘til Dawn begins at 4 p.m. in Acker Gym. Letter-writing supplies will be available. Hollywood is the theme of this year’s event, and one of the prizes offered this year will be two tickets to a movie premiere in Hollywood.

Zach Sachs, co-director of the event with fellow CSU, Chico student Tara Razi, said volunteers are encouraged to bring a list of postal mail addresses of friends and contacts for letter-writing.

“This event is a unique opportunity for students to show their character as philanthropic individuals who can have a good time in the process,” Sachs said.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded by entertainer Danny Thomas, is committed to treating all children who have cancer and other catastrophic diseases, no matter their economic situation.

For more information, contact Sachs at 925-899-0980, zsachs@mail.csuchico.edu, or Larry Bassow, Up ‘til Dawn adviser, at 530-898-5396.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2009

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260

Ninth Annual Adapted Physical Education Sports Day this Friday

One hundred school-aged athletes from five surrounding counties will attend the ninth annual Adapted Physical Education Sports Day held at California State University, Chico this Friday, Nov. 6. Kinesiology students will oversee events for the athletes from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm in Shurmer and Acker gymnasiums.

The Northern California Adapted Physical Education Consortium and the Department of Kinesiology host adapted PE Sports Day. It is a day of sport for individuals with disabilities, including physical and sensory disabilities such as deaf and hard of hearing, and visual impairment. Kinesiology students taking course work in adapted physical activity and outdoor education run events for the athletes.

Fifty activity stations, including the climbing wall, wheelchair specific sports, skill development games and many other fun activities make up the sporting atmosphere for the athletes.

For more information, call Rebecca Lytle, 898-4298, or Marci Pope, 898-6069, both professors in the Department of Kinesiology.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 3, 2009

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Robert Jones, Philosophy
530-898-4506

Ethics Forum Will Address Community Responsibility to Homeless

The Center for Applied and Professional Ethics (CAPE) is presenting its second fall forum this Wednesday, Nov. 4, in PAC 134 at 7:30 p.m.

Faculty members Cynthia Siemsen, Department of Sociology, and Becky White, Department of Philosophy, will join Serena Cervantes, subject and author of the June 25, 2009 Chico News and Review cover story on homelessness, and Brad Montgomery, executive director of the Torres Community Shelter, to discuss a community response to the homeless.

This event will include student, faculty and community points of view. The forum is free and open to the public.

The Center for Applied and Professional Ethics promotes ethical reflection about issues of concern within and outside the University. For more information, contact Robert Jones, Department of Philosophy, at 530-898-4506 or rjones@csuchico.edu. The CAPE Web site is at
http://www.csuchico.edu/cape/announcements/perspectives_on_academic_integrity.shtml.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2009

Joe Wills
530-898-4143

Virginia Walker, The Jamison Group
530-342-1009

First Annual High Altitude Wind Power Conference to be Held in Northern California Nov. 5-6

The first High Altitude Wind Power (HAWP) Conference was announced today by its sponsors, California State University Chico, the BayTEC Alliance and the Cleantech Innovation Center at Oroville. To be held in both Chico and Oroville on Nov. 5 and 6, the event is the world’s first conference dedicated specifically to addressing the challenges faced in the young but growing high altitude wind power industry, and will serve as a major platform for high altitude wind power professionals, academics, inventors and entrepreneurs from all over the world.

“We are delighted and excited by the successful launch of this first annual conference,” said conference chair Cristina Archer. Archer, a preeminent expert on high atmosphere power generation, is an assistant professor of energy, meteorology and environmental science at CSU, Chico, as well as a consulting assistant professor at Stanford University. “The emerging high altitude wind power industry needed a center of gravity, and we are pleased that the first global conference is anchored here in Northern California,” she said.

According to Archer, the conference is meant to allow participants to engage in a variety of discussions on the latest innovations, developments and specifications in high altitude wind power generation and distribution. Attendees can immerse themselves in two full days of presentations and case studies from local, national and international speakers, as well as interactive discussions on crucial issues.

Sponsored jointly by CSU, Chico, the BayTEC Alliance and the Cleantech Innovation Center, the conference is part of a regional strategy to develop a world-class cleantech economy in Northern California. BayTEC Alliance is a public-private community initiative aimed at transforming the regional economy; the Cleantech Innovation Center is its first flagship project.

“We are proud not only to be a sponsor of this important conference; we are excited to host it at the new Cleantech Innovation Center at Oroville,” said Weldon Larson, chair of the BayTEC Alliance. “This event represents precisely the type of activity that taps into the innovative capabilities and spirit that exists in our region.”

Besides Archer, speakers at the two-day event represent a who’s who of the wind power field, including Dr. Ken Caldeira, climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University; Dr Saul Griffith, co-founder of Makani Power, Squid Labs and Potenco; Anthony J. Asterita, a founder of Magenn Power and a renown expert in advanced lighter-than-air applications; JoeBen Bevirt, founder of Joby Energy; Pierre Rivard, president and CEO of Magenn Power; Len Shepard, CEO of Sky WindPower; and Robert Creighton, CEO of WindLift.

The conference is open to anyone interested in new developments in airborne wind capture devices and alternative energy. Cost to attend the event is $135 (general) and $35 with a valid student ID. For more information, updates on late additions to the program and to register for the event, visit the Web site at hawpconference.com.

Founded in 1887, CSU, Chico is a highly ranked public university located 90 miles north of Sacramento. A comprehensive university with more than 15,000 students, CSU, Chico offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs through seven colleges and six schools. The campus embraces the teacher-scholar model where faculty research and creative activity enrich student learning in and outside the classroom.

The BayTEC Alliance is a nonprofit collaboration of individuals from the public sector, the private sector, academia and the community at large in the Butte County region. The purpose of the alliance is to help ensure that Butte County and the surrounding region can collaborate and compete as a successful region in the new global economy. Its objective is to unify regional action around a common set of initiatives and to create a worldwide awareness for the region’s attractiveness as a place to build a business and to live, work and raise a family.

The first initiative adopted by the alliance is to build a healthy, sustainable economy based on “clean” technology. One of the goals of the alliance is that the region become recognized worldwide as a center of excellence in clean technology disciplines and a hub of cleantech industry. Development of the first Cleantech Innovation Center in the region has been the first major step in this direction.

The Cleantech Innovation Center at Oroville is a place where new ideas come to grow into profitable, carbon-smart businesses, products and careers. The CIC is the lynchpin in a regional network of resources connecting leaders in private industry and academia, entrepreneurs and students who have a passion to create an earth-friendly economy as a regional advantage. The objective is to be the focal point for clean and green technology entrepreneurship and business growth in the 17 counties of Northern California. The mission is three-fold: to incubate and attract new cleantech businesses and help existing businesses transition to cleantech; to support and fast track applied research in emerging cleantech areas; and to support workforce development and readiness in Northern California.

For more information, contact Virginia Walker, event producer, The Jamison Group, at 530-342-1009, or vwalker@jamisongrp.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2009

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Tom Imhoff, The Peace Institute
530-898-4743

Liberian Author to Discuss “What Prevents Peace?”

The Peace Institute at California State University, Chico is presenting Marvin Davis, a human rights journalist, editor, poet and peace educator from Liberia speaking on What Prevents Peace: Understanding Psychological Conditioning. He will be speaking on Thursday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m., Ayres 106.

Davis is the author of the book “Brave New Child: Liberating the Children of Liberia and the World,” an account of his work with more than 3,000 children in war-torn Liberia. During the 15-year civil war, Davis had to flee Liberia to save his life after rebels killed his father.

He teaches children about the root cause of violence so they can free themselves from their prejudicial and conditioned thinking. Davis believes that no matter how conditioned children are to violent behavior (and that the children of Liberia represent severe cases), they can be liberated from that habitual mindset. He suggests that, if they can, so can all children who face conflict daily—from bullying on the playground to bullying on the battlefield.

Marvin Davis has had success in his Liberian Peace School, functioning as an after-school program in war-torn Liberia. He has adapted pedagogical theories pioneered by Terrance and Jean Webster-Doyle in breaking through the social conditioning that pits members of different groups against one another, making deadly conflict much more likely.

The talk is free and open to the public. It is especially recommended, said Tom Imhoff, director of The Peace Institute, to students who have an interest in becoming teachers, peace workers, counselors or social workers.

The Peace Institute at CSU, Chico was founded in 2004 to address the question “What are the causes of war and the prospects for peace?” The institute is housed in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, but its members also come from the community and the student body and the faculty at Butte College, Shasta College and CSU, Chico. Its mission is to promote peace education on and off campus, seeking to understand human beings in ways other than the primary cultural paradigm dominant in the United States today: competitive, self-interested individuals promoting their own benefit at the expense of all others.

For more information, call Imhoff at 530-898-4743 or e-mail him at timhoff@csuchico.edu.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2009

Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Doug Elmets, Elmets Communications
916-329-9180

Banner Recognition Ceremony To Be Held for CSU, Chico and Local Native American Tribes

A recognition ceremony celebrating the Native American Banner Project for California State University, Chico in collaboration with Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, Tyme Maidu Tribe of Berry Creek Rancheria, Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of Enterprise Rancheria, Konkow Valley Band of Maidu Indians and Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 4:00 p.m.

The ceremony will take place at CSU, Chico’s north campus residence halls, on the lawn area between Mechoopda Hall and Konkow Hall. The event is open to the public.

The ceremony will begin with an introduction by David Stephen, director University Housing and Food Service, and a prayer blessing offered by a member of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria. Then CSU, Chico President Paul Zingg will offer a welcome, and Alan Rellaford, university creative director, will provide a history of the Banner Project. Remarks will then be heard from individual tribal members from each of the participating tribes.

Rellaford said the Banner Project finally came to fruition after many years of consultation and is a result of a close working relationship between the local area Native American tribes and the University.

The banners, located throughout the north campus student residence halls, depict photos and basketry designs from members of Butte County Native American Tribes. This University project highlights its special relationship with the Native Americans who first occupied the Sacramento Valley. The banners will serve as a reminder of the school’s rich Native American heritage and is symbolic of the positive government-to-government relationships that the region’s tribes have with the surrounding governments and institutions.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2009

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
David Kagan, Science Education
530-898-6259

Annual Pumpkin Drop Scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29

Get in the Halloween spirit at the 22nd Society of Physics Students’ Pumpkin Drop, Thursday, Oct. 29, noon, on the south side of Butte Hall, California State University, Chico.

Legend has it that Galileo Galilei demonstrated his Law of Falling Bodies by climbing to the top of the Tower of Pisa so that he could drop a large ball and a small ball at the same time. Both balls hit the ground together. Physics students will re-enact this great moment in the history of science using pumpkins.

An actor playing Albert Einstein will be the host as actors representing Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton each explain their theories of gravity. For a grand finale, students will use Galileo’s Law of Falling Bodies to drop pumpkins in time to the cannon blasts of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”

“We promise you a smashing good time!” said David Kagan, Department of Physics. Contact Kagan at 898-6259 or visit the Web site of the Society of Physics Students at phys.csuchico.edu/sps/activities.shtml.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2009

Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Tracy Butts
Multicultural and Gender Studies
530-898-5151

An Evening with Nikki Giovanni Tomorrow, Friday, October 23

Grammy-nominated poet, activist and author Nikki Giovanni will present a public reading on Oct. 23, 7 p.m., in the Bell Memorial Union, California State University, Chico. The event is free and open to the public.

Giovanni is a professor of English and the Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies at Virginia Tech, where she has taught since 1987.

Giovanni’s early poetry collections include “Black Feeling, Black Talk” (1967), “Black Judgment” (1968), and “Re: Creation” (1970). More recently, she has published “Bicycles: Love Poems” (2009); “Acolytes” (2007); “The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998”; and “Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems” (2002).

She is also the author of a dozen children’s books, including “Spin a Soft Black Song”; “Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People”; “The Girls in the Circle (Just for You!); and “Lincoln and Douglass: an American Friendship.”

Giovanni contributed an introduction to the anthology “Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors” (2005). She is a lung cancer survivor herself.

In addition to more than 20 honorary degrees from national colleges and universities, her honors include three NAACP Image Awards for Literature in 1998, the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996, and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album in 2004 for “The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection.”

She was commissioned by National Public Radio’s All Things Considered to create an inaugural poem for President Barack Obama. Giovanni read poetry at the Lincoln Memorial as a part of the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 2009.

Giovanni’s visit is the result of a collaboration among many groups, including Committee of Arts and Lectures, the Office of the President, the Office of Diversity, the Department of English, the Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the School of Graduate, International and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Residence Hall Association, The Cross Cultural Leadership Center, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Prime Time Productions, First Year Experience, the Vice President for Student Affairs, Writer’s Voice and B.L.O.C. [Black Leaders on Campus student organization?]

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