Spotlight Iowa City: Cross-cultural man

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 12/16/2009

One of UI senior Paul Worrell’s fascinations lies in conflicting cultures living together. He observed such a divide firsthand in his hometown of Denison, Iowa, and the experience has forever shaped his interests in the world.

Worrell, 22, recalled the change his predominately white community went through when the Latino population amplified.

“During that time, my town faced a huge culture shock,” Worrell said. “Seeing that even though there’s not that much difference between people, I began to think about how different they were.”

Most recent data shows roughly 1,200 Latinos lived in Denison in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 17.4 percent of its population. In comparison, approximately 3 percent of Iowa’s population was Latino that year.

The clashes and cooperation all piqued Worrell’s interest in conflicting cultures, influencing him to travel to South Africa twice. He will graduate this month with degrees in journalism and international studies and a minor in French, which he hopes to use to pursue more worldly adventures.

Worrell first traveled to South Africa through the UI’s study-abroad program in the spring of 2008. He craved the cultural diversity and wanted to see the transitions the country had made since abolishing apartheid.

The semester abroad also led Worrell to develop an interest in traditional medicine — also known as ethno-medicine — and encouraged him to make the trip back to South Africa last summer to research.

Worrell said traditional medicine is very much a part of South Africa’s cultural conflicts — practitioners have more entrepreneurial freedoms, allowing them to market and sell their remedies more freely.

“It’s really fascinating to me — this old institution that’s being thrust into this modern world,” Worrell said. “You go to different places in South Africa, and it’s different because modern world hasn’t reached all.”

His traveling has moved some of those he’s encountered, including his professors. Worrell took Writing across Cultures with journalism Associate Professor Gigi Durham. She recommended him for a UI Student Government research grant to return to South Africa this past summer.

“Paul has an adventurous spirit that has impelled him to venture into places many people wouldn’t think to travel,” Durham said.

In addition to traveling, Worrell has also served as a reporter and newscaster on KRUI.

He plans to attend graduate school to focus on African studies but hopes to culminate his interests one day and write for a publication that will allow him to travel and learn more about other cultures. His dream is to work for National Geographic.

No matter where his journey takes him, Worrell is convinced he will return to South Africa.

“I’m certain I’ll go back,” he said.

UI arborist a man of the woods

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 7/21/2009

The early morning sun shone over the old Art Museum through the leaves of the sugar maples fortunate enough to survive the 2008 flood. However, the tree taken down by UI arborist Andy Dahl Monday wasn’t so lucky.

Sawdust flew through the air as he took its branches off with a chain saw one by one while standing in a cherry picker. Fellow arborist Mike Rhinehart threw each limb into the wood chipper.

Dahl, 38, said his affection for arboriculture rubs off on his family. So much so, his children’s early vocabulary reflected his work.

“My first daughter’s first word was ‘tree,’ ” he said. “So I know she’s mine.”

Dahl, who has worked as an arborist for the university for 10 years, said he enjoys his job because he works with trees all day, whether it’s planting them or trimming them.

“You get to do it all,” he said, “You get to have fun planting new species that usually don’t grow here.”

He and the other arborists often recommend changes in the type of trees on campus, he said. And that’s not always fun — it means cutting down those that are dead.

“It’s not taken lightly,” he said, “Some of these trees are like old friends. To see them go, it’s a sad thing, but people’s safety is the most important.”

However, Dahl said, last year’s flood forced him and the other arborists to cut down more of the university’s trees. UI Facilities Management grounds supervisor Shawn Fitzpatrick said the university has 7,000 trees on the Iowa City campus.

“We’ve taken down about 120 trees that we normally wouldn’t have” because of the flood, Dahl said.

The number could grow; the university will have to wait to see if any more need to be removed or if new ones can be planted — a decision that will be influenced by the new Hancher complex location.

“We’ll replant once it’s all finished, but that may be a few more years down the road,” Dahl said.

Dahl used to run his own landscaping business but switched to arboriculture so he could have more time with his family.

“It’s just hard finding help, insurance cost, and customers own your soul from 6 a.m. to 10 at night, seven days a week,” he said. “With a family it’s just not possible.”

Rhinehart said he also worked in landscaping, but he took his job with the university because he was tired of working in sales and wanted to do more “hands-on actual maintenance.”

Along with the occasional side landscaping gig, Dahl manages to design and maintain a unique look for his own lawn.

“I’m the crazy guy on the corner with all the plants in the yard,” he said

And while he said arborists are meant to help maintain public safety on campus, he hopes his work will be recognized and appreciated 50 or 100 years down the road.

“Hopefully, someone will go, ‘Wow — someone knew what they were doing back then,’ ” Dahl said.

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Police citing more students

Orginally published in The Daily Iowan 7/13/2009

Students are racking up police records along with bar wristbands and empty bottles.

According to a UI report, the number of students charged with non-traffic-related crimes rose by 12.5 percent from 2007-08 academic year to 2008-09.

During that nine-month period, local law enforcement cited 1,194 students. The citation rate for undergraduate males was 8.3 percent.

Fraternities had the highest rate, with 15 percent of members receiving citations — up from 13 percent the previous year.

But Sean Prendergast, the vice president of public relations and marketing for the Interfraternity Council, pointed out the 2 percentage point rise roughly equaled increases in other student groups.

“We are trying to put on activities that take place on nights that people normally are drinking,” he said.

Male athletes came in second with a citation rate of 10.5 percent, more than twice the percentage of female athletes who faced charges. While the rate of male athletes increased by 3 percentage points, female athletes saw little change.

UI Assistant Director of Athletics Rick Klatt said he wasn’t familiar with the numbers.

Overall, 530 more male students were charged than female. Almost 6 percent of all women in a sorority were cited last year, the highest of any female group.

While this number is an increase from last year, UI Panhellenic Association President Treacy Weldon said that group is working with the Interfraternity Council to find ways to reduce binge drinking and prevent citations and arrests. She also noted a lack of alternative entertainment downtown, a perennial discussion among university and local officials.

“There’s no movie theater, bowling alley, or anything,” she said.

The greek community and athletics aren’t the only major organizations facing this problem. More than 10 percent of males and 3 percent of females living in residence halls were cited, a slight decrease from the previous year.

Von Stange, the director of University House, noted a distinction between crimes committed by students off-campus. Furthermore, residence-hall officials primary focus on drug and alcohol possession in their buildings.

He noted that assault — roughly 2 percent of 2008-09 crimes — is also a concern.

While the overall charge rate is up from the previous two years, it’s almost 29 percent lower than during the 2005-06 academic year, when local police cited 1,678 students.

DI reporter Alina Rubezhova contributed to this report

Hancher decision delayed, recovery continues

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 6/12/2009

AMES — UI officials did not propose a new location for the Hancher complex at the state Board of Regents meeting Thursday, despite expectations to do so after the last conference in April.

UI President Sally Mason said the university has eliminated some of the eight possible sites that officials had considered, but they have added some new ones as well.

“It is critical we make the right decisions,” she said.

Doug True, the UI senior vice president for Finance, said relocating Studio Arts is more difficult than Hancher; officials are “reaching to resolves insurance issues,” he said.

True said he expects to present a plan for the Studio Arts Building at the next regents’ meeting, in August.

The decisions involve waiting to see which areas are available once portions of the area surrounding the river are raised to 1 foot above the 500-year flood line. Last summer’s floodwaters reached that point.

The presentation featured specific areas of the campus, such as portions of the sidewalks near the Theatre Building as well as well as the west side of the IMU, which faces the river.

True said the university’s plan will also include making the sidewalk wider, which could better accommodate trucks delivering sandbags and Hesco barriers should floodwaters rise to that height again.

As for renovating the IMU’s still-closed lower level, True said the Federal Emergency Management Agency hadn’t given the school the approval to do so.

“We cannot go back into the lower level because FEMA could walk away from us financially,” True said, “It likely wouldn’t fund us without a mitigation strategy.”

The university is working with the College of Engineering to develop plans for the IMU lower level as well as other buildings, such as Art Building West, promising the building would be “up and running soon.”

Other buildings on campus also remain in recovery mode. Along with moving all of mechanical equipment out of the basement of Mayflower Hall, the university is working on a terrace that will help protect the building from future flooding.

The university is still waiting for an expected $470 million from the federal government.

“Cash flow from FEMA has been slow,” True said. “We have to predict how FEMA will be running in that sense.”

More UI jobs may be cut

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 6/12/2009

AMES — The UI may cut as many as 130 jobs by July 2010, part of an effort to slash its budget by $34 million, UI President Sally Mason told the state Board of Regents Thursday.

Officals hope to save $10.8 million.

But Mason said that number is an early estimate and the UI is working to avoid layoffs.

“That is a worse-case scenario,” she said. “We still need to see how many people take advantage of our retirement incentives.”

The UI could save roughly $1.8 million through both early and phased retirements, she said. She called this number a “conservative estimate,” and she anticipates an increase in savings as more people took advantage of retirement incentives, which would mean fewer layoffs.

Former UI Faculty Senate President Michael O’Hara said officials need to distinguish between different types of faculty. Tenured faculty will not be affected by the budget cuts, for example, but some lecturers and adjunct faculty members will be laid off.

Both Mason and O’Hara said more faculty members will teach course sections as teaching assistants lose their positions.

“Incoming freshmen will be exposed to a faculty member teaching a course section two years from now,” Mason said.

These courses will include some of the 100 freshman seminar courses slated for next year as well as the 200 set for the 2010-2011 term.

Mason said she didn't know exactly how much money the UI will save by eliminating graduate student positions, but “there will be savings.”

David Drake, the president of the UI Faculty Senate, said this will increase faculty’s workload.

“Faculty are already very much involved in the teaching process. It means we’ll be stepping up to the plate even more,” he said.

Along with these savings, the UI will have less money for travel and to support departmental activities, O’Hara said. These activities consist of anything from traveling to department conventions to paying outside speakers to come to the university, Drake added.

Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are making similar job cuts, and all three schools expect to raise tuition by an estimated 4.2 percent next year.

Regent President David Miles said this is all part of the effort to take the burden of tuition cost “off students’ and their families’ backs.”

The regents will approve the final budget at their next meeting, in August. Regent Robert Downer said these changes will continue even after the economy recovers.

DI reporter Micheal Dale-Stein contributed to this report.

UI tepidly tries Twitter

Originally published in The Daily Iowan 6/09/2009

UI officials have set up numerous accounts on Twitter, but they don’t know how many people are following the novel social networking site.

Updating with the 140-character-limited messages could just be “throwing stuff into a vacuum,” said George McCrory, an associate editor for UI News Service who writes updates for the university’s main Twitter page.

Twitter itself has had trouble retaining an audience. Ten percent of active users are responsible for more than 90 percent of all messages known as “Tweets,” while a Nielson study shows about 60 percent of new Twitter accounts are abandoned every month.

UI spokesman Tom Moore said university departments are not required to use Twitter. Because it is an emerging technology, there is no policy regarding the university’s activity on Twitter, either.
But university officials said it’s always in the UI’s interest to contribute to publicity in any way.

“Twitter is such a wide-open network. I think you want to have as many people ‘Tweeting’ about the university departments as possible,” McCrory said.

It’s difficult to quantify how much — if at all — Twitter boosts the UI’s public image. While 1,347 followers receive the UI’s updates, university officials say there is no way of knowing how many actually read the university’s posts.

Though studies show Twitter may not be the most popular social networking site, it is free and takes only minutes a day to update, officials said. The university has set up several accounts with numerous people to update them.

Tom Snee, another associate editor of UI News Service, updates Twitter accounts for both the College of Law and the Tippie College of Business. He said he uses the site as a means to share — rather than gather — information from its 184 followers.

Conversely, the main UI Twitter account selectively follows only 373 users, which include other departments, faculty, and local news outlets.

“I try not to follow anyone who will put out Twitter spam,” McCrory said, referring to advertisements that companies send through their Twitter accounts.

The site picked up 44 followers over the weekend. But it is not as popular as the UI page on Facebook, a site which the Nielson study found enjoyed consistently higher retention rates, even in its infancy.

Indeed, a Facebook page created by the university for incoming freshmen has gathered more than 1,300 members. While that is roughly the same volume as the UI Twitter account, the Facebook page boasts more features, such as high-quality video clips.

McCrory said the page’s popularity can also be attributed to Facebook’s wider audience and more established reputation.

He said: “Facebook is a little more trusted, tried and true among users.”