HPJ and PMCP Celebrate Mahdi Abulail's Birthday

Members of the HPJ Department, the PMCP Saudi Prison Certificate Program, and children of the Saudi officers gathered to celebrate Mahdi Abulail's birthday. Abulail serves as translator and is Assistant Program Coordinator for the PMCP.

Triumph of Alumnae

Becky Boler, who graduated from ONU in 2004 with a BA in International Studies, recently completed the requirements for her Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from Syracuse University. Dr. Rob Alexander received word from Boler, who also mentioned that she was currently employed by Management Systems International, a contractor working with the United States Agency for International Development in Washington DC. Her email was to thank the members of the HPJ Department who had helped guide her undergraduate career here, and included Dr. Andy Ludanyi, Dr. Ellen Wilson, Dr. David Smith, and Departmental Administrative Assistant Pat Badertscher.

Well done Becky!

Phi Beta Delta: Professor Emeritus Andy Ludanyi Speaks About Hungary

Dr. Andy Ludanyi, who taught Political Science for 40 years at ONU, spoke to a crowd of students, faculty, and community members last night about Hungary, the country of his birth. Ludanyi was concerned about "Hungary, the Threat," an article recently published in the New York Times Review of Books by distinguished scholar Istvan Deak. In the article, Deak argued that the new Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been acting as the European Union president for the past 3 months, represents a threat to Europe.

Ludanyi argued that Deak had been taken in by a smear campaign orchestrated by former communists and the losers in the last parliamentary elections, headed by Ferenc Gyurscany. Ludanyi described the opposition to Orban as coming from a group that was largely educated in the West, and who understood how to work with Western writers and journalists. Working with the former communists is a combination of influential organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and several multinational corporations. The IMF was concerned with Orban's decision to reform the Hungarian economy without that body's guidance, and the multinationals were angry with the new PM because of his policy of taxing the profits of those corporations. Orban, according to Dr. Ludanyi, is also often the victim of his own personality. He believes that if his actions are correct, then he needn't worry about his reputation in the press.

Deak accused Orban of passing policies that discriminate against Jews and Rom, or Gypsys in Hungary. He told the audience that Orban had actually worked to enact policies to help those groups, but that his success at the polls, which gave him a 2/3 majority in parliament, and therefore the ability to change the Hungarian constitution, has led those who lost in the elections to try to lessen Orban's effectiveness by accusing him of being a quasi fascist.

This, Ludanyi argued, was not the case at all, and Orban was proving to be an effective leader. Ludanyi based his comments on his experience living much of the year in Hungary since his retirement.

Model UN Takes to the Field

The Ohio Northern Model United Nations team attended the National Model United Nations Conference, New York held at the Marriot Marquis Hotel and the United Nations General Assembly from April 19-24, 2011. Over 400 universities and 5,000 students worldwide participated in the simulation.

The team, representing Kyrgyzstan participated in eight committees that include General Assembly Plenary, three General Assembly committees, Human Rights Council, World Intellectual Property Organization and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review. The team was actively involved in committee sessions, debating, negotiating, and coordinating with fellow delegates with the view to making recommendations to resolve global problems. The team made concrete suggestions, drafted and passed resolutions with other delegates to deal with sensitive global issues.

The members of the team in attendance were Megan Piersol -head delegate, Stacy McClelland, Gwen Carver, Victoria Army, Daniella Chambers, Yuki Tada, Andrew Crozier, John Curiel, Brendon Schaefer, and Rochelle Reamy with Professor Kofi Nsia-Pepra as the student advisor.

The team also called on the Kyrgyzstan Ambassador to the United Nations and his staff officers and had a fruitful interaction and discussion with them on mentioned global issues. The Model UN simulation equips global future leaders with the skills of diplomacy, negotiation, coordination, accommodation in the spirit of multilateralism to deal with the global challenges we face as a community of nations today. Dr. Nsia-Pepra was impressed with the eagerness and enthusiasm of the team, especially the new members, in learning to solve global problems in an amenable but very tasking atmosphere. He requests faculty to encourage students from all departments to join the Model UN since the experiences gained are essential and useful in all fields of study. Dr. Nsia-Pepra expressed his heartfelt thanks to his colleagues in the department of History, Politics and Justice for their worthy support, financial and otherwise, to the team.

Professor Alexander In the News

Dr. Rob Alexander has been busy lately providing interviews to the local media. The recent and unexpected killing of Osama Ben Laden has had media sources scrambling to explore the meaning of the event, and many turned to Dr. Alexander, who the Lima media outlets commonly turn to for hi political expertise.

Alexander provided interviews for WLIO television and The Lima News. On the small screen, he provided an immediate interview in which he hailed the death of Bin Laden as a step forward in the War on Terrorism, but also cautioned that a dead Bin Laden could become a martyr for jihadists to avenge, but that his death was not only a relief for Americans, but also for people in the Middle East region.

He followed that up with an interview on the Morning Show hosted by WLIO, where he told the interviewer that perhaps Bin Laden's death might encourage American and world leaders to discuss what this means for the War on Terror: "Is the war over?" "Is it time to bring the boys home?" He argued that the death of the "Face of Al Queada" did not mean and end to the war, there will always be replacements waiting to take over. To expect this to end terrorism, would be, in his words, "Pollyannish," or marked by extreme optimism. He also mentioned while this is a temporary gain for the Obama Administration administration, with plaudits coming in from both sides of the aisle, this will be fleeting as new issues knock the president off of the wave of popularity he is now riding. To see the complete interviews, click here.

Alexander also was featured in an article in the Lima News on local Professor's reaction to news of the terrorist leader's death.

Oddly enough, WLIO, when seeking man-on-the-street reaction to the news, Jon Carver, who is an adjunct professor of history in the HPJ department was also featured in the original interview. ONU HPJ is everywhere!

Phi Beta Delta: Earth Day - Professor Jay Mager: Birds and Global Warming

For Earth Day, Phi Beta Delta sponsored a talk by Dr. jay Mager on the effect of global warming on migratory birds. Titled " A Bird's Eye View on Global Warming," major told the audience how global warming might affect worldwide bird populations if left unchecked.

Report by Alexandra Habbouche

In Dr. Mager's lecture, we learned about the various bird species that are being affected by global warming. Although we do not notice a drastic change as humans, the bird populations are undergoing changes that may lead to the extinction of many species of birds. There are 9,787 bird species currently known and cataloged and nearly 21% of them are near extinction or are on endangered species lists. This is due to many reasons related to global warming and the melting of the polar icecaps.

The emission of “greenhouse gases” by humans is a leading cause of the global temperature rising because the carbon creates a sort of barrier which prevents heat from escaping the atmosphere after is reflects off the earth. This entrapment of heat leads to an overall warming effect, much like a sauna, which keeps the heat circulating in our air. The air warms the ice caps, causing them to melt and, in certain areas, the water level to rise, while at other points it causes the water already present to evaporate, causing a decrease in water levels in other areas.

One connection that was made for quite a few birds was that of indirect effects. The water levels change and the temperatures change making the habitat of certain microorganisms and various types of prey less livable than previously, diminishing the food source of the birds in question. With the lack of available food, the populations of birds which eat the diminishing prey no longer have the available resources necessary for survival and reproduction. It falls to a sort of “cascade effect” in that when something affects a certain aspect of a population the food chain that that organism is a part of becomes disturbed and cascades into a negative affect on the ecosystem as a whole.

Other animals rely on larger animals, such as polar bears, to obtain their food. Scavengers, such as the ivory gull, wait for a polar bear to finish feeding and then pick at the remainder of the carcass from the polar bear’s meal. With the number of polar bears decreasing due to the melting of their natural habitat, we are seeing a decrease in the number of ivory gulls and other scavenger birds because their food is becoming more and more scarce. The interdependence of the various animals is critical in an ecosystem and each need the other for survival and nutrition for reproductive success.

Although humans are not as affected by global warming in the same way other creatures are affects, one can see a drastic change in the wintering pattern of migratory birds. The areas of migration during the winter months has shifted north by hundreds of miles in only 40 years. This shows that in order for the birds to reach their primal breeding grounds, the birds must travel farther north to obtain the resources necessary for reproduction and survival. Birds are also leaving much earlier than before to head to their winter habitats. Altitudinal shifts are also a cause of distress because while certain birds are able to move up, some birds are as far north as they are able to go and are being out-competed for resources in the land, putting them at a risk of becoming extinct in the near future.

There are many aspects that involve the upkeep of an ecosystem. Man could insert certain things within the ecosystem to sustain a certain species or population, however, an entire shift would be created that would need to be sustained through different means. This artificial sustainment would only lead to more danger to the environment, therefore the ecosystems must be self-sustaining and not artificially maintained. It all comes down to what the bird species need to survive and reproduce because without those necessities, they will eventually all face a similar doom and become extinct.

Public History Students Present Plans for Hill Displays to HPJ Faculty

Public History minors Caitlin Kegley (standing in yellow sweatshirt) and Carol Wilson (seated in blue shirt) attended the HPJ Department meeting to gather input from the faculty about their plans for creating displays of the majors and minors offered by the department. The displays will highlight the accomplishments of students and faculty from the department, and give prospective students a chance to see the great things that they will be exposed to when they join the HPJ family.

One of those things will be the chance to design such displays. This effort has been driven by students from the Public History/Museum Studies minor, supervised by Professor Schuck. Well done all who have worked hard on this project - we are looking forward to the result!

Professor Loughlin Takes Student Presenters to Conference

Four students accompanied Dr. Loughlin to Walsh University last weekend for the "All Politics is Local Conference, where they presented their research.

The All Politics is Local Conference was established in 2004 as a conference tailored to undergraduate students interested in political science and international relations. It offers students an opportunity to present one of their papers in the domestic, international or philosophical areas of the discipline. It also has informational sessions on "What to Expect in Graduate School" and "What to Expect in Law School." These sessions are hosted by students who are currently in graduate or law school.

The students, which included Megan Piersol, Matt Wiseman, Soo Kyung Oh, and Jamie Culp presented their papers and acquitted themselves well, according to Loughlin. The students were encouraged to present their papers by Dr. Loughlin and Dr. Nsia-Pepra, who assigned those papers in their classes.