Phi Beta Delta Hosts Fulbright Scholar Talk

On Tuesday April 28, Phi Beta Delta sponsored a talk by Fulbright Scholar in residence Juan Manuel Guerra-Hernandez, who talked to students and others about the Mexican education system.

Guerra told the packed room that he began teaching in a one-room school in a remote village in Mexico when he was eighteen years old. In order to reach the village, he had to ride a bus for an hour and a half, and then walk up a mountain for an additional three hours. He taught twenty-two students who ranged in age from first to sixth grade. Since his first classroom experience, he has gone on to teach both elementary and high school students in a variety of locations around Mexico.

Guerra outlined the Mexican system, which is organized along the European model, and mentioned that the National Education System is currently in the process of adding additional years to the kindergarten program so that students will have access to free public education from age three to eighteen. In Mexico, school days for elementary students are divided into two sessions. Due to the large number of students who must be taught, some attend school from 7:00-12:00, and then the second group attends from 1:00-5:00. Teachers often are assigned to different schools for each session, and sometimes must teach outside their specialty in order to have a job, which is not an unusual occurrence here. Unlike the situation in the United States, all teachers who graduate are assigned jobs by the National Ministry of Education. Class sizes in the public schools are much larger than is typical here, with an average of 40-55 students in each class, and Guerra related that while education is free for all students, perhaps as many as 40% cannot afford the supplies that are not supplied by the government. The quality of the particular school is therefore largely dependent upon the ability of the local principal to secure additional funding to help students.

Like the U.S., Mexico must deal with students whose first language is not the same as the majority. Unlike the situation here, where the goal is English proficiency, in Mexico, bilingual education in languages such as Nahual, Mayan, or any of the other sixty two languages spoken there, is emphasized as a means of keeping the native languages alive.

After his prepared remarks, Guerra fielded a number of questions from students.

Guerra is at ONU working to teach students the native dances of his country. He and student dancers have been performing native Mexican dances for a variety of audiences including local grade schools in the area. He will also be delivering a talk about immigration issues to Professor Crawford's Recent US History class on Thursday, before he returns home on May 7.

Professor Lomax Presented in Hungary

Professor John Lomax presented his paper, "Lupus Rapax? Frederick II and the Widowed Churches of Sicily" at the Thirteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in Esztergom, Hungary last August. Lomax is on sabbatical writing book reviews and papers this quarter.

While in Hungary, Lomax, accompanied by his daughter Hannah, visited Professor Andy Ludanyi, who summers in his home country, and who took them around Budapest, which included the statue of Anonymous, an early Hungarian Historian, and the monument dedicated to the Hungarians who rose up against the Soviets in 1956.

Students to Nature Center for Seminar on John Grisham and Criminal Justice

Recently, Professor JoAnn Scott took thirteen students to the Metzgar Nature Center for a seminar on the films of John Grisham and their relation to Criminal Justice. Students watched several of the films that have been adapted from Grisham's novels, including The Client, The Chamber, Runaway Jury, and the Rainmaker. Scott used these films to compare criminal and civil trials, the role of the death penalty in American jurisprudence, the role of attorneys in the trial process, and the manipulationof juries and the use of jury consultants. As always, Wayne and Carol King fed students all of the good food they could handle.

Alums' Triumphal Return

Jared Hardesty, who graduated with a degree in History in 2008, returned to campus on Friday April 17 to teach Professor Waters' Western Civilization 2 classes. Hardesty, who is pursuing his Masters Degree in Atlantic History at Boston College delivered a lecture entitled "Slave Rebellions in the American Revolution" to Waters' classes.

Hardesty reports that he is enjoying his graduate school experience, and living in Boston. Plans are in the works to bring Jared back to deliver a Western Civilization Series talk during his Spring Break next year.

ONU Model United Nation competes in New York

The ONU Model UN Team travelled to New York for the National Model United Nations Team Competition last week. ONU’s team competed as Zimbabwe, which was a challenge, since that nation is under sanction by the international community. The students were escorted by Professor Andy Ludanyi and Professor Kofi Nsia-Pepra, both of the History Politics and Justice Department. During the event, delegates debated issues that included Child Soldiers, Nuclear Disarmament, Economic Development, and AIDS, among others. Professor Ludanyi commented that the members of ONU’s delegation did a fine job of representing their designated nation. Among other activities outside of the conference, the team had supper at an Ethiopian restaurant.

Pictured (by Kelly Morman)- Back Row (Left to Right) - Ben Wollet (SR History Strongsville, OH), Dan Jones (SR Poli Sci Ashland, OH), Matt Byal (SR International Studies Dunkirk, OH), Leeann Sullivan (P6 Pharmacy Wicklifffe, OH), Rochelle Reamy (JR International Studies Bolivar, OH), Dr. Ludanyi, Dr, Nsia-Pepra

Front Row (Left to Right) - Kelly Morman (JR Poli Sci Monroeville, OH), Shaili Patel (P3 Pharmacy Mannheim, Ontario) , Stephanie Wells (SR International Studies Dayton, OH), Amanda Stype (SR IBEC Ada, OH), Doug Chapel (SR, Poli Sci Parma, MI), and Sa'rah Plesner (SR International Studies Indianapolis, IN)

Professor Crawford Presents at PCA/ACA National Conference

Professor Russ Crawford presented his paper: "Parker and Stone: the Search for the Political and Cultural Center," at the National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Meeting held in New Orleans, LA between April 8-11. Crawford's paper explored how Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park and films such as Team America: World Police have consistently presented a message of bi-partisanship in their work.

Crawford's research focuses on how the popular culture effects American politics and culture. Crawford's dissertation was published in June of 2009 as The Use of Sport in the Promotion of the American Way of Life During the Cold War: Cultural Propaganda, 1946-1963by The Edwin Mellen Press (the photo above shows him standing next to his book - green cover - at the Mellen exhibit at the conference). Crawford has also furnished a chapter ("The Nationalist Pastime: Baseball and Nationalism in the United States, Cuba, and Japan") to a forthcoming anthology on sport and politics to be published by McFarland Publishing later in 2009.

HPJ Professor Jimmy Wilson co-sponsors Poster Competition

Friday April 3, Professor Wilson of HPJ, along with the Entrepreneurship Program sponsored a poster competition for students. Competitors designed posters that imagined new businesses or ways of changing the world for the better. Among the ideas for new businesses presented were proposals for restaurants, automotive detailing, and even a golf course for ONU. Ideas to change the world included rainfall trapping technologies to help provide drinking water in Africa, birth control methods for the developing world, and methods to recycle oil from plastic products.

Fifty contestants took part in the session including two (Michael Krummery and Sean Kazmierczak) from HPJ. Krummery earned second place in his track, and of the nine students from Dr. Wilson's GIS class, three won awards. the four first place winners (one per track) and twelve second place awards (three per track) shared $1,000 in prize money.