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Extremists more willing than others to share their opinions

November 18, 2009

By Jeff Grabmeier

People with relatively extreme opinions may be more willing to publicly share their views than those with more moderate views, according to a new study.

The key is that the extremists have to believe that more people share their views than actually do, the research found.

The results may offer one possible explanation for our fractured political climate in the United States, where extreme liberal and conservative opinions often seem to dominate.

“When people with extreme views have this false sense that they are in the majority, they are more willing to express themselves,” said Kimberly Rios Morrison, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.

How do people with extreme views believe they are in the majority? This can happen in groups that tend to lean moderately in one direction on an issue. Those that take the extreme version of their group’s viewpoint may believe that they actually represent the true views of their group, Morrison said.

One example is views about alcohol use among college students.

In a series of studies, Morrison and her co-author found that college students who were extremely pro-alcohol were more likely to express their opinions than others, even though most students surveyed were moderate in their views about alcohol use.

“Students who were stridently pro-alcohol tended to think that their opinion was much more popular than it actually was,” she said.”

Morrison conducted the study with Dale Miller of Stanford University. Their research appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

The studies were done at Stanford University, which had a policy of prohibiting alcohol usage in common areas of all freshman dorms. In the first study, 37 students were asked to rate their own views about this policy. The average student’s views were near the mid-point of the scale — but most rated the typical Stanford student as more pro-alcohol than themselves.

“There’s this stereotype that college students are very pro-alcohol, and even most college students believe it,” Morrison said.

In the next two studies, students again rated themselves on similar scales that revealed how pro-alcohol they were. They were then asked how willing they would be to discuss their views on alcohol use with other Stanford students.

In general, students who were the most pro-alcohol were the most likely to say they wanted to express their views, compared to those with moderate or anti-alcohol views.

However, in one study the researchers added a twist: they gave participants fake data that indicated other Stanford students held relatively conservative, anti-alcohol views.

When extremely pro-alcohol students viewed this data, they were less likely to say they were willing to discuss alcohol usage with their fellow students.

“It is only when they have this sense that they are in the majority that extremely pro-alcohol students are more willing to express their views on the issue,” Morrison said.

However, students who had more extreme anti-alcohol views were not more likely to want to express their views, even when they saw the data that suggested a majority of their fellow students agreed with them.

“Their views that they are in the minority may be so deeply entrenched that it is difficult to change just based on our one experiment,” she said.

This finding shows that not all extremists are more willing to share their opinions — only those who hold more extreme versions of the group’s actual views.

These results have implications for how Americans view the political opinions of their communities and their political parties, Morrison said.

Take as an example a community that tends to be moderate politically, but leans slightly liberal.

People with more extreme liberal views in the community may be more likely than others to express their views because they think the community supports them.

“Everyone else sees these extreme opinions being expressed on a regular basis and they may eventually come to believe their community is more liberal than it actually is,” Morrison said. “The same process could occur in moderately conservative communities.”

Don’t be happy, be worried

November 18, 2009

Sports fans need dose of the negative to enjoy the game

By Jeff Grabmeier, Research Communications

For sports fans watching their favorite team play, the greatest enjoyment comes with a strong dollop of fear and maybe even near-despair, a new study suggests.

Researchers studied fans of two college football teams as they watched the teams’ annual rivalry game on television.

They found that fans of the winning team who, at some point during the game, were almost certain their team would lose, ended up thinking the game was the most thrilling and suspenseful.

“You don’t want to be in a great mood during the whole game if you really want to enjoy it,” said Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, associate professor of communication and co-author of the study.

“We found that negative emotions play a key role in how much we enjoy sports.”

The study will appear in the December issue of the Journal of Communication.

Researchers studied 113 college students as they watched the 2006 OSU-Michigan football game.  While the game has always been a bitter rivalry, the stakes were particularly high that year: Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the country and Michigan was second. The winner was assured of a berth in the BCS National Championship game.

Ohio State won the game 42-39 in a dramatic finish.

“Ohio State was winning easily in the first half, but the good thing for our study was that Michigan really tightened the game in the second half. It turned out to be a great game,” said Prabu David, associate professor of communication and study co-author.

Students from Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State participated in the study. Before the game, they completed questionnaires about which team they were rooting for and how committed they were to their favorite team.

They then watched the game on television from wherever they wanted and logged on to a Web site during the 24 commercial breaks to answer questions about the likelihood that their favorite team would win, how suspenseful they thought the game was and how positively or negatively they were feeling at the moment.

The results showed how important negative emotions were to enjoyment of the game.

“When people think about entertainment in general, they think it has to be fun and pleasurable. But enjoyment doesn’t always mean positive emotions,” David said.

“Sometimes enjoyment is derived by having the negative emotion and then juxtaposing that with the positive emotion.”

Results showed that positive feelings during the game had the greatest effect on suspense, but negative feelings also played a role.

In the past, researchers have thought of positive and negative emotions experienced in entertainment as cancelling each other out, David said. But this research suggests that both positive and negative emotions act independently and together to contribute to entertainment and enjoyment.

“You need the negative emotions of thinking your team might lose to get you in an excited, nervous state,” Knobloch-Westerwick said. “If your team wins, all that negative tension is suddenly converted to positive energy, which will put you in a euphoric state.”

That’s why the fans of the winning team who felt the most sense of enjoyable suspense were also those who at some point were most convinced their team would lose, she said.

David said the results of this study closely followed those of a previous study he did with colleagues that examined fan reaction during the 2006 Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.

The results of that study also showed the importance of negative feelings in contributing to how much fans enjoyed the game.

“Obviously, winning helps people enjoy a game. But we’re finding that it doesn’t help to have a game where you have positive feelings the whole game — negative feelings are an important part of enjoying a game,” he said.

While some people may question the purpose of studying fan reactions to a football game, the researchers say the study has important implications.

For one, sports provide a unique opportunity to study how emotions operate in people.

“Researchers want to study the impact of emotions, but it is very difficult to create powerful emotional reactions in a laboratory setting,” David said.

“This is a study that was done in the real world, and we can get a snapshot into a person’s emotional state while they are actually experiencing the emotion. Sports creates emotions that are very powerful, and which matter to people.”

Employees volunteer for hands-on role in moving university forward

November 18, 2009

By Adam King

Richelle Simonson found herself far outside her comfort zone, standing inside a circle of chairs at the Longaberger Alumni House in front of a sizeable group of fellow OSU employees, most of whom she had never met.

She had the group’s rapt attention, though, as she talked about changing the way they approached their jobs and how to better collaborate with one another through understanding personality types and removing real or perceived obstacles.

Simonson had just finished her own training on these and other concepts, and this was her first foray as a newly minted facilitator — an OSU employee who volunteers to help President Gordon Gee change the workplace culture one unit or department at a time. Simonson is one of 22 facilitators who have been recruited and trained to host sessions across campus to help build a high-performance workforce, an integral part of Gee’s six imperatives needed to bring the university from excellence to eminence.

“There’s a unique opportunity for us right now to get even better,” said Simonson, senior director for strategic services at Facilities, Operations and Development, who has been at OSU for 18 years. “It’s about attaining whatever our maximum potential is. It’s a huge undertaking. It has long-ranging ramifications, it won’t be easy and it will take a lot of work and commitment. But the institution is ready, and I think Ohio State is an outstanding place to work and I believe in it.”

Her belief in OSU is so strong she was willing to put aside her own fears of whether she could successfully present the concepts, many of which Simonson had fundamentally ingrained in her work ethic. But never before had she seen the concepts packaged in a way many could so easily understand.

Yet going through the training, Simonson found her own bedrock foundation was able to shift in new ways.

“For me I’ve changed in that I’m still being assertive and willing to push agendas forward, but I try to do it in a way that embraces everyone, no matter what their style is,” Simonson said. “I’ve had to be much more conscientious in that this is how I’m a controlling style and this is how I approach this. Those competing personality styles, they approach it from a completely different perspective.

“Because of the culture-shaping process, I’m actually very quickly able to identify where they’re at in their style or their approach and adjust mine accordingly so that we can be more effective. I also do a lot of coaching and feedback now with people I might not have approached in the past.”

It’s that personal buy-in to the culture shaping that is critical for facilitators to be effective, said Todd Suddeth, program director for the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male, who began facilitating in October.

Working at the university since 2002 has been an “incredible journey,” he said, because it’s made him a better person and raised his quality of life. He felt driven to give something back and believed helping shape the OSU culture would deliver the biggest return on his time investment.

“Work performance is something I’ve always been interested in,” Suddeth said. “One of the main things I want people to take away from these retreats is just be curious as to the direction President Gee wants to take the university, curious about what culture plays in any organization and how culture shows up in what we do at the university and curious about thinking differently: What can I do? What can I do better? Can the sessions be effective in making me an effective employee and make my teams more effective? Will I have better relationships with my coworkers? A lot of that starts with being curious and actually trying something different.”

Those who agree to become facilitators take a big leap toward trying something different. They have to take two weeks off from their jobs to go through intensive training and then lead two-day “unfreezing retreats” as well as follow-up half-day sessions that reinforce the concepts they teach. The facilitators also meet with each other once a month to go over their successes and struggles.

And the president himself seems pleased with their results.

“When I first met with the facilitators last spring, I told them that they were like drum majors — setting the direction and leading the charge,” said Gee. “They are doing a superb job as champions for positive and lasting change at the university, helping to create a campus culture that isvibrant, innovative and fully supportive of shared successes.”

Peer-to-peer interaction

A key element to making OSU’s culture change a success is having university employees teach the sessions. The facilitators live and breathe the current culture and understand university jargon.

“The trust level is higher if you see fellow employees who have bought into the process and taken time out of their regular work schedules to do this,” said Todd Suddeth, who started facilitating in October. “Those going through the sessions might say, ‘If this person is taking time out of their schedule, there must be something to this and this person must believe in this process. Since they have experience working here and they see this is something that can work better in their department, maybe I should take this seriously to improve what’s going on in my area.’”

New facilitators are likely to be recruited in 2010, and Richelle Simonson, who became a facilitator this year, said it’s important those new trainers come from all employment levels.

“Having a good mix of facilitators is going to strengthen this program,” she said. “It was a huge growth experience for me. But I also learned that there are a tremendous number of talented people on this campus who are fundamentally committed to making us better. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds, but at the end of the day, there’s a love for this campus and people want to do what’s right so individuals and teams can grow and the institution can achieve whatever its destiny is.”

Hidden Benefits Fair makes a move to 4-H building

November 18, 2009

By Adam King

In its 15th year, the Hidden Benefits Fair on Dec. 2 will be appearing in a new location that aims to make it easier for the thousands of faculty and staff who plan to attend.

Up until last year, the Hidden Benefits Fair, which welcomes university and outside vendors, was held at the French Field House. The University Staff Advisory Committee, which sponsors the fair, wanted to make it even more centrally located, especially for those employees who didn’t have easy walking or bus route access.

Moving it to the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Building puts the event right on a CABS route, and the Jerome Schottenstein Center parking lot, which is directly across the street, will be available. No parking permits will be needed in the lot during the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. fair.

CABS busing will be available via Campus Loop North and North Express that both stop at the agriculture campus, a block and a half walk to the 4-H center. The Med Center Express, which runs every 15 minutes, will be adding a special stop from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in front of the 4-H building on Dec. 2 only.

But there was another reason the move made sense to USAC.

“Our committee members are big fans of the sustainability impact of the beautiful facility,” said Hallie Fargnolli, co-chair of USAC’s Outreach Committee and one of the main organizers of the event. The 4-H building is currently the only certified “green” building on campus.

The Hidden Benefits Fair was created to show faculty and staff the many benefits available to them as Ohio State employees. OSU units and organizations are able to highlight goods and services that sometimes fly under the radar at such a large university, and outside vendors often provide substantial OSU-only discounts or specials, and the fair is one way they let employees know about their offers.

“For these reasons it is important for faculty and staff to attend, and supervisors are encouraged to promote employee participation,” Fargnolli said. “While the fair is aimed at tapping in to discount programs and services, there also will be a focus on wellness and health coaching opportunities.”

The new location will provide a separate room for extra privacy for those who are planning to take a biometric screening through Your Plan for Health, the vendor layout will have some purpose and a new area for food samples will be in place. And the fair will no longer be a hindrance for OSU athletes who need to use the field house for training.

For more information about the Hidden Benefits Fair and the vendors that will be attending, visit usac.osu.edu.

Top 3 on 2, 11/19/09

November 18, 2009

Why did you choose to work at Ohio State?
I joined Ohio State as a student employee. I was actually offered a position with a local company and accepted it a few short hours before I was hired by Ohio State, so I worked both jobs for a while. It didn’t take long to determine that Ohio State would be my permanent home and I’ve been here ever since.

What do you like about your job?
The greatest part of my job is the opportunity it affords me to interface with some of the greatest minds in higher education. Every day is a learning experience, and I’ve been exposed to new ideas and experiences I would have never enjoyed anywhere else.

What would you improve at Ohio State?
If there is one thing I could change, it would be to introduce a higher level of cooperation and collaboration between colleges/business units. I believe President Gee’s vision of “One University” is spot on.

If you weren’t working at Ohio State, what would you be doing?
I would probably be a ship’s captain. Or, perhaps, flying commercial airliners. Since I don’t have a captain’s or pilot’s license, I suppose I’ll stay at Ohio State.

What advice would you give a new employee?
Communicate. The key to success at this university is communication. Don’t be afraid to ask questions; you may be surprised by the answers you receive.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?
I have too many favorite activities to list; let’s just say I keep a full schedule. The real headliners would have to be camping, boating, ATVing and tinkering with antique tractors. I’m also a huge fan of my pet rabbit.

Of what honor or recognition are you most proud?
Certificates, medals, plaques: They’re all nice things to hang on the walls, but a true honor is to, every day, have the opportunity to serve the mission of a great college and a great university.

Who is your hero?
My heroes would have to be Mom and Dad.  Without their hard work and dedication, I would have never had many of the opportunities I have experienced.

What are you going to do when you retire?
My hobbies could easily take the place of a full-time job if I would let them, so I’ll probably just pick up a few more.

If you were the university president for a day, what would you do?
I would merge vacation and sick leave for staff into one category called “paid time off.” I think employees should have the choice to use earned time as they see fit.

To nominate a staff member for an upcoming issue, e-mail oncampus@osu.edu.

The Ohio Union’s grand ballroom, at 17,716 square feet, will hold up to 1,700 patrons once it’s opened to the public this spring. For now, the floors are prepped for staining and the massive chandeliers have been put in place.

Sure, top 10 lists are entirely subjective, but Time magazine thought enough of Ohio State President Gordon Gee and his push to reshape the university, and ultimately higher education, to name him one of the nation’s top college presidents and devote the main story to his vision. The featured issue hit newsstands Nov. 13 (also visit time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1937938_1937934,00.html)

Of Gee, Time wrote, “A poll a while back found that he could easily be elected governor in a state that calls itself the Cradle of Presidents. Gee, however, has something different in mind. As president of the Ohio State University and one of the most experienced university executives in the US, he is campaigning for a revolution in higher education at a time when the field is more important, and perhaps more troubled, than ever before.” Time touched on Gee’s prolific political efforts to keep higher education a state priority, his hectic scheduling to fit as much as he can into a single day and willingness to buck the status quo.

Also on the list were the presidents of New York University, the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Tulane University, Middlebury College, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Miami Dade College, the University of Texas-Brownsville and the University of California-Oakland.

Writing center puts age-old craft of literature on high-tech stage

November 4, 2009

By Julia Harris

Doug Dangler may well be Ohio State’s most well-kept secret. Not only is he the associate director of the university’s Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing, but he also has his own radio and television show about writing — complete with a Facebook page and more than 210 fans.

He’s also very funny and more than a little irreverent. “Those 200 fans are mostly paid, and let me tell you I lost a lot of money on that deal,” he said, looking furtively at the big blue microphone pointed at him across his desk.

His tongue-in-cheek comments belie a genuine passion for the craft and pursuit of writing. For more than a year now, he has been the creative force behind Writers Talk, broadcast on WCBE 90.5 FM and on the Ohio Channel.

The show features a different writer every week and examines issues related to writing, publishing and surviving in a literary world. Past guests have included Don Pollock, a recent creative writing graduate with a highly successful book, and award-winning novelist Julia Glass.

“OSU is such a magnet for talent, but it seemed to me that these people were simply passing through and no one was archiving these visits in ways that would allow us to gain knowledge from them,” Dangler said.

“I’d always wanted to bring these folks into the classroom, but that isn’t always possible. So instead, we take them into the studio and create a high-quality educational artifact that we can then spin off into any number of places.”

So far, Dangler estimates he’s done more than 70 interviews, 30 of them on video. He has produced over 50 five-minute radio segments for WCBE and is pleased to note that Writers Talk has never missed a week of airtime, even though the production end of the broadcast is pretty much a one-man show.

“We’ve had technical issues with mikes and sound, but we’ve gotten some better equipment as we’ve moved forward — by hook or by crook, or by me holding bake sales,” he said with a grin.

Even on his shoestring budget, Dangler takes pride in creating high-quality broadcasts that don’t adhere to the grainy, do-it-yourself aesthetic popular on video-sharing sites like YouTube. Drawing on the expertise and knowledge of faculty across the university, from English to creative writing to theatre, Dangler wants to create valuable resources that can be used by a wide range of people.

“I want to build this partnership and leverage it so that the highly talented faculty we have here on campus can be displayed to the world, to show that Ohio State is moving from excellence to eminence,” he said.

He has specific visions of enlisting faculty experts to do some of the on-camera interviews of visiting writers, since he’s the first to admit he doesn’t quite know everything about everything.

He’s also quick to admit that going in front of the camera is not a job for everyone. “It basically takes someone with no self-esteem, who’s willing to be degraded on camera,” he said.

Someone Dangler would like to see conduct an interview — and be interviewed herself — is Kathy Fagan, poet and professor of creative writing. He might have his work cut out for him, though, when it comes to convincing Fagan to appear on camera.

“Radio is bad enough,” she said with a laugh. “Middle-aged people, we’re a bit shy of the camera. The idea of being videotaped is just horrifying, but I suppose we’ll have to get used to it.”

Part of the reason she’s so game about change is her realization that Dangler’s doing the university — and literature — a major service in his attempt to capture some of the stories that have thus far been allowed to trickle into silence.

“We’ve had poet laureates, we’ve had Nobel laureates, and it’s just unbelievable to me that we have no archive of those readings,” Fagan said.

“It’s such important but quiet front-line work for the arts and the literary world at the university. I wish we could make him and people who do this kind of work as popular as the football team.”

For more info …

Writers Talk, giving the inside scoop on writers and artists at Ohio State, is broadcast Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on WCBE (90.5 FM), with podcasts at cstw.osu.edu/podcasts, on Facebook.com/writerstalk and on YouTube.

A clearer picture of war

November 4, 2009

Veterans Learning Community aims to provide military students a better way to share their experiences

By Adam King

Anna Rice found her time spent behind a .50-caliber truck-mounted machine gun protecting convoys in Iraq to be an incredible bonding experience with the 32 other soldiers in her platoon.

“It’s a great feeling of people who have your back and can relate to you and really know you,” said Rice, who as a member of the US Army Reserves was pulled just three quarters into her college studies for deployment in 2005.

After her 15-month tour of duty, Rice returned to Ohio State to continue pursuing her undergraduate degree in exercise science/pre-medicine. She’s now a 25-year-old undergraduate and has seen and experienced things no straight-from-high-school student would ever be privy to.

But that’s exactly why there was an interdisciplinary effort by the Department of Comparative Studies and Academic Program Coordinator Susan Hanson, the Center for Folklore Studies and Director Dorothy Noyes and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies to create the Veterans Learning Community (cfs.osu.edu/veteranslc), to give Rice and students like her a way to turn their unique experiences into academic learning, bond with one another and share what they know with the entire university.

Part of the VLC’s mission will be to oversee two military student-only classes, the first of which begins in winter quarter.

“The Experience of War,” limited to 45 veteran, active-duty, Coast Guard or National Guard students as well as international students who are or were members of their country of origin’s military, is an undergraduate comparative studies reading course that looks at representations of the war experience in art, literature and film. Hanson will teach the course and said it should foster greater discussions than the duplicate course she taught this past spring that was open to all students.

“It was a good class, but the vets and active-duty students were uncomfortable engaging with the material in front of other students,” Hanson said. “For many of them, their experiences are so extraordinary that they’re reluctant to describe the relationship of their experiences to the material in the course to students who have little to no knowledge either of current conflicts, military culture or life on the ground during a war. To some extent we tried to pull them out, but you needed to respect their reluctance.”

The students’ reticence was the driver for Hanson and Noyes to work with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies to develop the general education course and a follow-up spring quarter writing course, “Translating Military Experience,” which will be limited to 20 veterans and focus on student-developed projects based on their experience and interest.

“They might learn more than they might have because we’ll create a platform for them to communicate, and we expect a really effective forum,” Hanson said.

While there has been some criticism that the courses, which don’t cover the current conflicts, exclude the general student population from perhaps understanding war through their classmates’ first-hand experiences, Hanson points out that the courses are optional, and veterans can elect to take similar courses open to all. A vets-only course is no different than an honors course that has prerequisites, Hanson said, but in this case, the students also are partners in the learning process.

“With these students, you can take for granted their knowledge in that area of military experience and get to a higher level of discussion,” Noyes said. “But I would also emphasize that the point of a learning community is to encourage research and communication beyond the classroom. We’ll be creating opportunities for dialogue as the project develops.”

To that end, some students who are taking the courses will be asked to participate in a spring conference April 9-10 at the Mershon Center titled “Making Sense in Afghanistan: Interaction and Uncertainty in International Interventions” that will be open to the campus community.

With more than 1,200 veteran or active military students attending Ohio State, there is a large pool to choose from. This fall 127 new or transferred military students began at OSU, and those numbers are expected to grow over the next few years as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

Rice has had almost three years to make sense of her time in Iraq, but she’s looking forward to exploring why war happens with her fellow vets, especially those who are fresh from the battlefield.

“Everyone had questions when we deployed,” she said. “We didn’t know what we were going to do and how would our job directly affect the conflict and how would it help the citizens of Iraq. I had tons of questions, but you don’t always get them answered. You’re in the dark in some ways.

“I’ve been in the reserves for six years, and it’s not something you want to tuck in the corner, but it also doesn’t consume you as a person. You have to find the balance, and a lot of times the balance is you have to engage in it when you’re not performing military duty.”

For more information about the VLC or the new military-only courses, contact veteranslc@osu.edu or Susan Hanson at 247-6539.

Keeping their eyes open

October 7, 2009

College of Optometry staffs a visionary clinic at downtown Faith Mission

By Julia Harris

She might not call it a mid-life crisis, but the fact remains: Eight years ago, Joan Nerderman decided she needed a different job.

“I was getting kind of stale, a bit too comfortable with what I was doing,” she said.

What she was doing was working as an optometrist in a private practice in Worthington. Today, she’s still doing eye exams and dispensing glasses; she’s just doing it in an entirely different place, with an entirely different patient population.

As the attending optometrist and faculty director of the Faith Mission eye clinic, an outreach program run by Ohio State’s College of Optometry, Nerderman works with homeless people.

“The first time I saw evidence of drug abuse in the eyes, I had no idea what I was seeing,” she said. “Same thing with domestic abuse. I think I sort of had blinders on before, but I’m much less naïve now. I’m definitely more street smart.”

It’s an intelligence she’s learned the hard way, by looking into and through the eyes of people who, for a variety of reasons, are struggling through impossibly difficult situations. She sees diabetics with such poor blood sugar control that they are nearly blind from retinal hemorrhaging; she has seen people with old gunshot wounds that continue to affect their vision. And she sees people with malignant, life-threatening tumors in their eyes.

“One woman had been hit so badly that the lens inside her eye had been knocked loose and was floating around in the fluid inside her eye,” Nerderman recalled in a quiet voice.
“The force involved with that kind of injury is just unimaginable.”

In the face of such hardship, Nerderman chooses to focus on what she can do for her patients. She and a rotating crew of third- and fourth-year optometry students staff the clinic three days per week, providing more than 1,000 free eye exams annually and dispensing on average 2,000 pairs of glasses. Every patient gets a complete eye workup, from glaucoma screenings to pupil dilations that check for conditions like diabetic retinopathy or high blood pressure.

Many patients are surprised at what an in-depth exam can reveal about their overall health, says Stephen Denny, an optometry student who just completed an externship at the clinic. “They come in because they say they can’t see very well and want us to give them glasses, but a lot of systemic problems are manifested through the eyes,” he said.

He cites one example where an elderly Somali woman came in with severe cataracts, and when he did an exam he noted severe inflammation and scarring at the back of her eye. “When I mentioned it to her, she said quickly, ‘Oh I don’t have tuberculosis,’” he said. “Well, that kind of scared us a bit, but mostly it made us sad because she had no access to health care. We were able, though, to get her to a primary care physician.”

For Denny, working at Faith Mission was — in his own words — “An eye-opening experience. You get great exposure to a very diverse population and see a lot of eye diseases you wouldn’t ordinarily see.”

Through long-term partnerships with groups like Fight Blindness Ohio and Select Optical in Worthington — a family-owned company that donates eyeglass frames and puts lenses in them for Faith Mission patients — the clinic is able to provide both fashionable and functional eyewear.

“I’d be very happy to wear some of these styles,” Nerderman said, cheerfully modeling a golden-rimmed pair.

“I mean, you can’t be taken seriously at a job interview if you’re wearing big red frames like Sally Jesse Rafael from 15 years ago!”

As she spoke, a dark-haired woman roamed the selection of frames, trying on various pairs and peering at herself in the oval mirrors. Her name was Tracy, she said, and she was a recovering alcoholic with scar tissue in her right eye from having been abused.

But today, her eyes were filled with hope rather than pain. “In three months, I graduate from paralegal school,” she said, her chin lifted. “And I’ve got stacks of business cards from attorneys who want to hire me.”

Nerderman watched her slide a slate-gray pair of glasses onto her face. “You’re going to make it, aren’t you?” she said.

Tracy peered down her nose, smiling behind her new glasses. “Hell yeah,” she said.

Stories like these keep Nerderman going. “At the end of the day I feel I’ve accomplished a lot in helping people who couldn’t get help otherwise, and if I can get some students to think that way too — so that when they graduate they do the same — well, that’s what it’s all about.”

Top 3 on 2, 10/08/09

October 7, 2009

Why did you choose to work at Ohio State?
It seemed like a natural transition; from student, to student employee to full-time employee. Ohio State has so much to offer for someone who wants to make a difference every day.

What do you like about your job?
My job is primarily to help people do their jobs better. In Extension we help Ohioans live, work and play as healthier, happier individuals. It’s extremely rewarding.

What would you improve at Ohio State?
I believe protecting the environment should be one of our highest priorities. From rain gardens and green roofs to solar panels and wind turbines, I think OSU could make a big impact on the community and be a leader in green living.

If you weren’t working at Ohio State, what would you be doing?
Selling plants. I love gardening and although the weeds in my garden might argue with that statement, being in nature makes me very happy.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?
Video games! My husband and I can’t get enough of them, and if you tell me that is a boring hobby then I will know that you have never been to my house for game night.

What advice would you give a new employee?
My advice would include encouraging new employees to be patient. We are a large university with so much to offer. Giving up too soon is a mistake; finding your place takes time.

Of what honor or recognition are you most proud?
That is a tough question. I think that any honor or recognition that I receive is due in large part to my co-workers and family who provide amazing strength and support.

Who is your hero?
I would have to say my mom. Every time I start to get discouraged I think about all that she and my dad have gone through to raise four lucky kids and I realize just how fortunate I am.

What are you going to do when you retire?
First, I intend to sleep in. Then I would eat breakfast on a balcony overlooking the ocean before taking my dog Sophie for a walk on the beach. Finally, I’d relax in a hammock for some light reading and a nap. Repeat.

If you were the university president for a day, what would you do?
I would take my dad to a football game. Box seats on the 50-yard line anyone?

To nominate a staff member for an upcoming issue, e-mail oncampus@osu.edu.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Medical Center are partnering with one of the world’s most prestigious and leading biomedical research institutions to provide personal genetic information to more than 100,000 people.

The Medical Center and the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, home of the world’s foremost biobank resource for human cells and DNA, announced their partnership in the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (CPMC). The personalized genetics study will involve an integrated approach to recruiting and enrolling 2,000 study participants at Ohio State, free of charge.

The CPMC brings together doctors, patients, geneticists, counselors and information technology experts to create a protected environment for participants to see and understand their personal genomic information and allow them to make individualized decisions about their health care. This platform also will enable health care providers to utilize the genetic-based information of participants to develop tailored medical and therapeutic treatments. OSU Medical Center is one of only five centers in the country participating in the project with Coriell.

OSU team breaks its own hydrogen landspeed record

October 7, 2009

For the second time on Sept. 26, Ohio State’s Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2 team exceeded the international speed record it set in 2007.

The Bullet’s average speed was 302.877 mph, which is pending certification by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile before it can be called an official record.

The hydrogen fuel cell-powered landspeed streamliner racer and its engineering student team made the record attempts in the Salt Flats in Utah the week of Sept. 20. On that Wednesday, the Bullet reached an average 299.91 mph, far surpassing the certified record of 132.129 mph the vehicle set in 2007.

The Bullet was required to make two speed runs, one each in opposite directions and within 60 minutes, in order to be considered for the record, which is officially determined by averaging the speed of the two runs.

The students overcame several obstacles on the way to their highest speedometer reading, said Giorgio Rizzoni, director of Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research and adviser to the team.

“The skill level, ingenuity and resilience of this student group is unparalleled,” he said. “Just last night they had a broken gearshift. They worked overnight to take the whole thing apart, and here they are now surpassing the 300 mph mark. It’s just phenomenal.

“This record will hold for a long time,” Rizzoni said. “I can’t see who is going to take this away from us.”

The vehicle, engineered by Ohio State students, is driven by professional racing driver Roger Schroer.

Video of the historic run can be viewed at youtube.com/buckeyebullet2.

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