stepping up g iving Back veggin’ out Women’s soccer As the Red Cross Vegetarian students find balance team’s depth creates sees a decline in by eating foods that keep their competition in donors, students busy bodies moving, page 13 practice, page 23 should help, page 10 Thursday Ithaca, N.Y. September 16, 2010 The Ithacan Volume 78, Issue 4 Employees weigh in on job quality by kayla reopelle contributing writer Classroom To better assess employee satisfaction and to weigh its strengths as a collegiate employ- Professors2.0 tap into online trends er, Ithaca College tested itself by participating in the Chronicle of Read Professor to enhance course learning Higher Education’s 2010 “Great Komaromi’s blog; Colleges to Work For” survey. post response by 8 p.m. by michelle bizon When the results were an- assistant news editor nounced, the Aimee Dars Ellis, assistant professor of man- college was not keep the dis- Practice 6-8 p.m. included on agement in the School of Business at Ithaca Col- cussion going. lege, logs onto her Twitter account from her of- the final list of Comment on fice computer. As @doctordarzy, Ellis sends her great colleges this article at Read Professor 140-characters-or-fewer tweets out into the Twit- to work for. theithacan.org. Read Professor Ellis’ Check Professor Baker’s Wagner’s blog by Friday. terverse. They’re viewable to everyone, but she C o l l e g e latest tweet before class blog before class Post response! tomorrow has a specific audience in mind — her students. administration, faculty and Practice 6-8 p.m. She sent her first tweet April 2, 2009, and said staff members took the survey it was an experiment for class-related announce- in March and April, and Mark ments. In the past few weeks she sent tweets Coldren, associate vice president Final project posted warning of impending deadlines and linking to of human resources, received the on Blackboard! articles pertaining to class discussions. survey results Sept. 7. Weekly tweet due Ellis said she sends messages like these to reach President Tom Rochon, who by midnight out to students through a technology platform with was in communication with Coldren during the survey pro- See teaching, page 4 cess, said the specific results will De Sign By CoLLeen LoWery not be released to the public. “These results will be kept from faculty and staff,” Rochon said. “They will be used to inform our initiatives with respect to all Red Cross recovers from blood shortage employees at the college.” The survey assessed colleges by mary kate fain Community College to see which with a questionnaire concerning contributing writer college can collect the most blood characteristics of their school After recovering from a sharp in two days. and another questionnaire on decline in blood donations resulting “It’s the first time we are do- individual’s evaluations of their from schools being out of session, ing a two-day blood drive, but we respective workplaces. the American Red Cross is hosting are hoping it will work out,” Gold- Methodology of the survey was a series of blood drives to continue fine said. “We have way too many based on feedback from a panel meeting the constant demand. people come in at blood drives to of higher education experts. The The New York-Penn region of where we don’t have enough time panel’s suggestions were used to the Red Cross released a state- and power to handle everybody. customize the survey to reflect is- ment in mid-August asking for A We’ve had to turn away walk-ins.” sues specific to colleges, according positive, B positive and O positive In the coming months, the Red to the Chronicle. donations to meet specific regional Cross will also host blood drives at The results from the two as- hospital needs, Marianna Schreyer, Cornell University and other loca- sessments were combined into 12 communications manager for the tions in the area. The next drives recognition categories that focused New York-Penn region, said. will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 on topics like trust in leadership, Since then, the Red Cross was p.m. Friday at the Ithaca YMCA general work life conditions and able to meet that need by holding a on Graham Road, and from noon teaching-specific areas. chain of blood drives in the region to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Sept. 27 in Rochon said this particular leading up to and during Labor Williard Straight Hall at Cornell. survey stood out to him because Day weekend. With schools up and The national Red Cross needs responses could be measured running again for many students, more than 38,000 blood donations alongside other schools. the Red Cross was able to collect every day to supply basic needs, “Although colleges can be enough blood on campuses and in according to its website. College very diverse in size and work- communities across the country and high school students make up ing conditions, [this] benchmark to respond to the acute shortage, about 15 percent of all donors, and makes much more sense than Schreyer said. college-age donors are becoming the usual benchmark that you Ithaca College’s Red Cross club, increasingly important since many get against employees working led by sophomore co-presidents go on to be consistent blood do- in a business or industry setting,” Shayna Goldfine and Steve Kahlar, nors, Schreyer said. Rochon said. has set a goal of doubling last year’s “Collecting blood from college In spring 2005 Suzanne Forsyth blood collection this semester, campuses is always great because Cornell University sophomore Benjamin Lehman gives blood as nurse Serena Associates conducted a Quality of Goldfine said. these are people who have just Coates monitors his veins Friday in Williard Straight Hall at Cornell. Work Life study at the college. “I love donating blood,” Goldfine reached donating age,” Schreyer emi Ly park/tHe itHaCan Through this study, the con- said. “It gives you this sense of help- said. “Hopefully they’ll have a posi- sulting practice found that the ing someone, and it’s not like you tive donating experience and it will Less than 38 percent of the coun- could be transmitted through a college’s strong points were col- even have to do a lot.” become a lifelong habit for them.” try’s population is eligible to do- blood transfusion — but some are league appreciation, employee On Oct. 5 and 6, the Red Cross But despite the constant need nate blood, according to the Red related to lifestyle. benefits and a strong culture of club will host blood drives in Em- for blood, the Red Cross has rules Cross website. Many of these rea- According to the Red Cross’ community. The study showed erson Suites. The college has also preventing a large portion of the sons are medical — like certain challenged Tompkins Cortland U.S. population from donating. blood disorders or diseases that See red cross, page 4 See survey, page 4 find more. online. www.theithacan.org 4 The Ithacan Nw e S Thursday, September 16, 2010 Donors Instructorsteaching use social media find rules from page 1 which many of them are already familiar. “There are so many challenges to [holding] stu- limiting dents’ attention,” Ellis said. “That is the struggle — red cross to find the right mix of social media students re- from page 1 spond to. And for me, it is an ongoing quest.” A growing percentage of faculty members at in- website, a person is prohibited stitutions of higher education like the college are at- from donating blood if they are tempting to tap into the networks their students are a male who has had sexual con- already heavily using outside the classroom. Some tact with another male, even faculty members at the college are incorporating once, since 1977; have ever taken social networking platforms, such as Twitter; col- money, drugs or other payment laborative creation platforms, such as blogs or wi- for sex since 1977; or have had kis; and learning management systems offered by sexual contact in the past 12 the college, such as myHome, to engage their stu- months with anyone described dents both in and out of the classroom. above. There are also rules re- A University of Colorado– Denver study con- garding those who were born or ducted by professor Joanna Dunlap and doctoral have traveled out of the country candidate Patrick Lowenthal in 2009 found that and people who have tattoos. students tweeting for class were more cognizant of Some students, like senior Elise class material because they sustained interactions Springuel, face these challenges outside of class time. when it comes to donating blood. Junior Dylan Hulser was one of the students in Springuel said she has always Ellis’ Organizational Behavior and Management a imee Dars ellis, assistant professor of management, tweets from her office. ellis is one of several wanted to donate, but can’t be- class, for which she started tweeting. Hulser, who professors at the college who is dabbling in social media and online learning strategies for class. cause of the restrictions that apply has been using Twitter for more than two years, jaCoB LiFSCHULtz/tHe itHaCan to her. Springuel recently got two said he benefited from the increased out-of-the- tattoos and traveled to Africa and classroom communication with Ellis. “I brought this real interest in using technology pants formed quite sophisticated peer networks, the Middle East. These scenarios “You’d never want your professor to call you to Ithaca, but Ithaca doesn’t have the same culture following up to 60 accounts with the ratio of fol- prohibit her from giving blood.