Expertise & Excellence » 2009 » February

Assistant Professor Mary Szybist wins poetry fellowship

tspeel — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:03:23 +0000

Mary Szybist, assistant professor of English:

Szybist is one of only two poets in the country selected by the U.S. Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan, for the 2009 Witter Bynner Fellowship. As part of this honor, Syzbist will read her poetry on February 26 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and receive a $10,000 fellowship provided by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry. In return, fellowship winners are asked to organize a reading in their hometown and participate in the reading and recording session at the Library of Congress. On Szybist’s poetry, Ryan said, “Mary Szybist’s lovely musical touch is light and exact enough to catch the weight and grind of love. This is a hard paradox to master as she does.”

Law student receives scholarship from NorthWest Indian Bar Association

tspeel — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:26:13 +0000

Lewis & Clark Law School student Michelle Watchman is one of 13 law students to receive a scholarship from the NorthWest Indian Bar Association. NIBA is a non-profit organization aiming to represent the education and welfare of Native American attorneys. Watchman, a member of the Tlingit and Navajo tribes, said that law school would not have been possible without the scholarship assistance from her tribe and NIBA.

“The impacts of this scholarship extend beyond myself and my educational personal educational pursuit,” Watchman said. “The impacts will be felt by my people and the Native community at large. Upon graduation, I hope to not only give back to my community but also inspire future generations of Native youth to pursue their educational dreams.”

Read more about Watchman and her involvement in Native American law.

Graduate school counseling program honored

tspeel — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:04:16 +0000

Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling was one of seven schools honored at the Education Trust annual conference for its groundbreaking work in school counselor education. Lewis & Clark is a founding member of an initiative to establish innovative models for school counseling preparation. The initiative, in its tenth year, is designed to train school counselor graduate students and practicing counselors to help close achievement gaps of low-income students and students of color by improving counseling services in public schools. Since its inception, 20 education programs have been developed to transform the role of school counselors.

Lewis & Clark faculty presented their work at the February conference and offered guidance and advice to other schools interested in pursuing this educational model. Laura Pedersen, assistant professor and school counseling program director, Danielle Torres, assistant professor of school counseling, and Mollie Galloway, dean and director of research and assessment, presented at a session titled “Transformed School Counselors Fostering College Readiness” at the conference in Austin, Texas.

Center for Animal Law Studies director comments on animal rights

tspeel — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:58:12 +0000

In an Associated Press (AP) story that has made its way into publications around the world, Pamela Frasch, law professor and executive director of the Center for Animal Law Studies, comments on the growing field of animal law.

For the past 16 years, Lewis & Clark has been at the forefront of this emerging legal field. The school was the first to publish an animal law journal, the first to establish an international conference on animal law and the first to develop an animal law clinic, with full-time faculty.

In the AP article, Frasch points out that animal law is where environmental law was 20 years ago—demand is growing rapidly but much about this legal practice area is still to be tested and developed. In 2000, Lewis and Clark was one of nine law schools to offer animal law studies. Today about 100 do.

Frasch notes that because state laws vary to such a wide extent, there continues to be a mix of inconsistent laws regarding animal rights. “A mouse as a pet has protection. A mouse as a pest can be killed at will. Research mice have no protection. It is the same animal but it is a matter of context.”

San Fransisco Chronicle (San Fransisco, Calif.) More laws being passed to protect animals

MSNBC Animal cruelty laws among fastest-growing

Chicago Daily Herald (Chicago, Ill.) Animal law one of the fastest-growing niches in the industry

Detroit Free Press Animal law makes steady gains in states, experts say

The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah) Animal rights? Some things shouldn’t happen to a dog

Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Animal rights become hot field of legal study

York Daily Record (Pennsylvania) In some states, they shoot dogs, don’t they?

Associate Professor of History awarded Fulbright grant

tspeel — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:02:43 +0000

David Campion, associate professor of history:

Campion received a grant from the Fulbright Scholar Program to work with universities in Hong Kong on development of their general education curricula. Only five awards were made by Fulbright as part of the foundation’s Building General Education Curriculum in Hong Kong Universities Program.

The purpose of the grant is to help Hong Kong universities prepare for replacing their current three-year undergraduate program with a four-year program that will include general education requirements beginning September, 2012. The grant winners will teach one course and consult with colleagues and committees at their host university.

Alum to speak on cyborg anthropology

tspeel — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:59:32 +0000

In May, Amber Case ‘08 will present “An Introduction to Cyborg Anthropology” at WebVisions 2009, an annual conference on the future of technology, web design, social media and new commerce in the Northwest. Case will explore data visualization and marketing in the online ecosystem during her session on May 22. Since graduating last year, Case founded CyborgCamp, a self-described “unconference” on the future of humans and technology, and keeps a blog at Nerdabout.com.

Case believes that new social roles have developed due to our use of technology. “How we interact with machines and technology in many ways defines who we are,” she said. “Cyborg Anthropology is a lens with which to understand what’s happening to us in a world mediated by dynamic objects, processes and change.”

Associate Dean of Students Greg Caldwell travels globally

tspeel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:34:12 +0000

Greg Caldwell, Associate Dean of Students and Director of International Students and Scholars, has been invited by IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) in Washington, D.C. to travel to Kiev, Ukraine and Chisinau, Moldova to interview applicants for its 2009/10 Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD).

“Greg has been a pillar of international education for many years and we are incredibly proud that he has been selected to aid IREX in their recruitment and review processes” said Celestino Limas, Dean of Students. “Greg is a Lewis & Clark institution whose dedication to international students is unmatched. I join many students, faculty, and staff in congratulating him on this significant honor.”

The Global UGRAD program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State. The program brings undergraduate students from the former Soviet Republics to study for one academic year in US colleges and universities.

Lewis & Clark has participated in the UGRAD program for the past four years and has hosted student scholars from Turkmenistan, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova.

Caldwell will depart in mid-February for the two-week trip.

Students contribute to study on Oregon’s dying trees

tspeel — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:06:59 +0000

Ecological data collection conducted by undergraduate students during a College Outdoors trip has been included in a Science journal paper titled “Widespread Increase of Tree Mortality Rates in the Western United States.” The paper discusses the mortality rate of trees in the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia. Studies show that the rate of tree death in this area has doubled in only 17 years. This can partially be attributed to the fact that temperatures have risen over one degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years, leading to droughts and an abundance of insects and disease. Their research contributions on the changing dynamics of western forests has recently drawn the attention of a number of high-profile national and international media outlets.

Lewis & Clark students have collected data for the Franklin lab every August since 2006 as part of the Environmental Service Project. Alum and 2006 Break Away trip leader Brian Erickson ‘06 said, “We returned to plots that were established 30-plus years previously and remeasured every five to 10 years to provide an ongoing image of forest dynamics over time. The students collected high-quality data, worked extremely hard, learned a lot, and had a good time in the process.”

New York Times (New York, NY) Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths

Seattle Times (Seattle, Wash.) Regional warming hurting NW forests, study says

BBC News (London, UK) Climate shift ‘killing US trees’

Alum named Sustainability Program Manager

tspeel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:05:36 +0000

Alum Marjorie Lifsey has been named the Sustainability Program Manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Lifsey, a lawyer with a background in environmental science, worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Justice in the National Resources Division before attending law school. Among many in the environmental policy arena, Lifsey’s dedication to sustainability and her expertise in law make her the perfect candidate for this position. As the Sustainability Program Manager, Lifsey will “work with committee members and other state agencies to further the governor’s effort to become a sustainable, climate-friendly state.” To read more from BikePortland’s Q&A session with Lifsey, click here.

Preparing students for lives as public leaders

tspeel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:58:18 +0000

Eban Goodstein serves as a professor of economics at Lewis & Clark. He also directs the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions, a project designed to harness the energy and interests of today’s college students to pressure political leaders to cut carbon emissions and pursue climate change policies. Goodstein insists that his role as educator requires him to help students build critical thinking skills to face the most difficult political, scientific and economic challenges of our time. In this commentary, he calls on his peers to see their roles as not only educators in their fields but guides to our citizenry and future public leaders.

The National Teach-In takes place on February 5 and includes more than 700 colleges, universities, and faith and civic organizations around the country who will discuss the goal of cutting current carbon levels by 40 percent by 2020. This teach-in will include lectures, faculty and student symposia, theater performances, and active engagement with political leaders and their environmental policies.

Watch this video of Eban Goodstein and colleagues discussing the importance of youth involvement in the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions: