Back to School

An autoimmune disease, type 1 diabetes occurs when the beta cells of the pancreas stop making insulin because the bodys own immune system has attacked and destroyed them, causing glucose to build up in the blood.

Researchers in Australia and across the world are now experimenting with pancreatic islet transplantation – a process whereby islets containing the insulin-producing beta cells are transplanted from the pancreas of a deceased organ donor to the diabetic patient.

It is hoped the procedure will help those suffering from type 1 diabetes to live without daily insulin injections.

Clinical trials began in Australia in 2005 following a Federal Government grant to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, however Dr Jessup said more research was needed to find a way to improve the procedure given that 70 per cent of the cells die upon transfer.

“Islet transplantation certainly has its benefits for people with a severe and debilitating form of diabetes but we really need to find a way to improve the health of beta cells so they live longer once they’re transplanted,” Dr Jessup said.

“These cells only make up one per cent of the pancreas so it’s very difficult to isolate them without causing damage and the other problem is that patients need two to three transplants, all from different donors, because the cells can’t multiply,” she said.

Assisted by a team of researchers from various institutions across Adelaide, Dr Jessup will investigate the role of a particular gene called RCAN1 in islet function, as well as how to increase the blood supply to the pancreas following a transplant.

“One reason they die is due to a lack of oxygen so we believe that if we co-deliver endothelial progenitor cells, which are the building blocks of blood vessels in the body, then we might be able to increase blood supply and therefore improve the overall health of the cells,” she said.

“The good thing is that no matter what we’re still going to discover a lot more about diabetes itself because if we understand how beta cells work then we may be able to stop them from being killed in the first place, which removes the need for treatment.”

In addition to her fellowship, Dr Jessup has received one of 10 Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Research Awards, an annual program to acknowledge individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to research since finishing their PhD.

Seven school buses pulled into the Botzum railroad station in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Thursday morning.

Then 229 first-, second- and third-graders from Romig Road Community School climbed aboard the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train to learn about animals that live in the park.

Once the train pulled out of the station, ranger Kerry Muhl talked about the park, told American Indian stories with talking animals and passed around shells, a deer pelt, antlers and replica skulls of a deer and a coyote.

Romig Roads fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders will ride the train today and learn about transportation.

Grant money from the Sisler McFawn Foundation paid for the train tickets (about $3,000) and, more importantly, the bus transportation.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad has received money from Sisler McFawn and the Kenneth Calhoun Charitable Trust to host field trips for inner-city schools and expects 2,400 riders this spring, mostly from Akron Public Schools. Romig Road is the only Akron charter school to receive grant money this spring, though other charter schools from Cleveland have participated in recent years.

Thats how weve been able to reach out to these schools and offer them a field trip that they wouldnt normally have the budget to do, said Kelly Steele-Moore, the railroads marketing director.

The grant money has enabled many more schools to participate this year, Muhl said.

The schools are so strapped for money, Muhl said. Last year, we were really low as far as our attendance.

Paying for the buses is key.

In talking with teachers and principals, there are schools that can actually pay for field trips; its the buses that always get them, Muhl said. So as a result, if theres a grant that can actually pay for the busing, too, they jump on it.

The first train car of third-graders Muhl addressed hushed up quickly when she promised to tell a story.

You just saw that beaver marsh that is over there and you know, its a really beautiful place, but it didnt start out so beautiful and Im going to tell you the story of the beaver marsh, Muhl said.

She explained that in the 1960s and 1970s, the marsh was a junkyard filled with old cars, appliances and tires. But as the land was becoming a national park, people got to work clearing out the trash.

All of a sudden, beaver came back into this area, after being extinct in this area since the 1830s, she said. They came back and they dammed up a portion of what was called the Ohio & Erie Canal and it made that beautiful beaver marsh.

She said thats an example of what makes the Cuyahoga Valley National Park special.

So when you think about things around maybe where you are or in other places around the country that may not look so nice, you always have a chance to clean things up, she said.

She told an American Indian story about how a talkative turtle tried to hitch a ride south for the winter with migrating birds and got dropped on his back when he couldnt keep his mouth shut. Thats why he sleeps in the mud at the bottom of the pond each winter and has a shell that looks cracked.

Zakiya Littlepage, 8, liked that story.

Ive got a pet turtle, she said.

She also enjoyed documenting her first trip on a train, which journeyed as far north as the Boston Mills station by the ski resort before returning.

I took pictures of the trees and stuff and I took pictures of houses, she said. I just love riding around.

Latarien Davis, who is 9, was thrilled to see a creature that wasnt on the agenda gliding along the surface of a pond beside the tracks.

I saw a snake swimming, he said.

Damariontae Brightwell, also 8, enjoyed hearing about the beaver marsh.

When asked what he had learned on the train, he replied with a comedians sense of timing: That animals could talk.

That got a big belly laugh from Jerome Love, who accompanied his 9-year-old nephew Malachi Watson on the trip.

Im like him, Love said. I didnt know turtles could talk, either.

Love was one of 68 adults who came on the trip, which thrilled Janice Ickes, the Romig Road Community School special education coach who organized the trip. She said she hoped the experience would lead to more opportunities for parents and children to spend time together learning.

We had so many more adults and even extended family members who wanted to come, that we had to hire two more buses at the last minute, she said. This is an experience that will make a memory to last a lifetime.

There are many opinions proposed, many surveys taken, much research done regarding what employers want and expect from college graduates.  The answers may vary over the years, and may vary depending on profession or field of study.  Some skills may be very specific and others more broad. 

College students often do not consider the actual skills that employers want.  Students may be thinking in terms of all-college requirements, requirements in their major, and possibly a minor, and what they need to do to graduate.  They often miss the connections between what they are doing in college and what they will need to do once they graduate – especially regarding those courses outside of their major. 

As a college parent, you may want to talk with your student about what he is learning.  Ask him about the skills he is gaining in his classes.  Ask him about internships and real world application of his learning. Help him explore connections between his learning and his goals.  Help him explore the meaning of a Liberal Education. The more that your student, and you, understand and consider the meaning of his college education, the more easily he will be able to apply his learning to his life.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities defines a “liberal education” in the following way: 

 Liberal Education is an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g. science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal education helps students develop a sense of social responsibility, as well as strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.

This is clearly a tall order, but one which employers recognize and endorse.  It is not an education which is theoretical and impractical, but directly applicable to students’ lives.

A national survey conducted for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in 2010 by Hart Research Associates, asked 302 executives of companies with more than 25 employees what they believed were important learning outcomes or goals for student graduates.  The results indicated that employers want more emphasis on a broad range of skills as well as in depth knowledge of a specific area.  They also placed great importance on students’ ability to apply their knowledge to the real world and to conduct research and evidence based analyses.  What follows are a few of the findings of that study.  They indicate that colleges are already doing many things well, but that employers see room for improvement as colleges prepare the employees of the future.

• 25% of respondents feel that colleges and universities are doing a good job of preparing graduates for the workplace.
• 90% are asking employees to take on more responsibilities and use broader skills than in the past.
• 84% believe that it would be helpful to require students to complete some type of senior project.
• 81% see importance in students’ research skills and ability to analyze evidence.
• 89% look for the ability to communicate effectively – orally and in writing.
• 81% would like to see increased focus on critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills.
• 79% endorse increased emphasis on real-world experience through internships or other external experiences
• 75% emphasize ethical decisions and their connections to choices and actions
• 71% see the need for teamwork skills and the ability to collaborate with diverse groups
• 70% recognize innovation and creativity
• 63% see the need for the ability to work with numbers and understand statistics.
• 52% would like to see more emphasis on civic knowledge, civic participation, and community engagement.

Clearly, employers see the need for some improvement in colleges’ preparation of students for the workplace.  Most colleges are continually working to update and improve their approaches to the development of these skills – often through innovative programs across the curriculum.  However, students themselves can consider their own paths and individual emphasis on these important, broad skills.  The conversations that you, as a college parent, have with your student about his education – and the workplace – can help your student explore these vital connections that lead to that important “liberal education.”

If you think privacy settings on your Facebook and Twitter accounts guarantee future employers or schools can’t see your private posts, guess again.

Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of personal information hiding behind password-protected accounts and privacy walls just too tempting, and some are demanding full access from job applicants and student athletes.

In Maryland, job seekers applying to the state’s Department of Corrections have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall.

Previously, applicants were asked to surrender their user name and password, but a complaint from the ACLU stopped that practice last year. While submitting to a Facebook review is voluntary, virtually all applicants agree to it out of a desire to score well in the interview, according Maryland ACLU legislative director Melissa Coretz Goemann.

Student-athletes in colleges around the country also are finding out they can no longer maintain privacy in Facebook communications because schools are requiring them to “friend” a coach or compliance officer, giving that person access to their “friends-only” posts.

Schools are also turning to social media monitoring companies with names like UDilligence and Varsity Monitor for software packages that automate the task. The programs offer a “reputation scoreboard” to coaches and send “threat level” warnings about individual athletes to compliance officers.

A recent revision in the handbook at the University of North Carolina is typical: “Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team members’ social networking sites and postings,” it reads. “The athletics department also reserves the right to have other staff members monitor athletes’ posts.”

All this scrutiny is too much for Bradley Shear, a Washington D.C.-lawyer who says both schools and employers are violating the First Amendment with demands for access to otherwise private social media content.

“I can’t believe some people think it’s OK to do this,” he said. “Maybe it’s OK if you live in a totalitarian regime, but we still have a Constitution to protect us.

It’s not a far leap from reading people’s Facebook posts to reading their email. … As a society, where are we going to draw the line?”

Aside from the free speech concerns, Shear also thinks colleges take on unnecessary liability when they aggressively monitor student posts.

“What if the University of Virginia had been monitoring accounts in the Yeardley Love case and missed signals that something was going to happen?” he said, referring to a notorious campus murder. “What about the liability the school might have?”

Shear has gotten the attention of Maryland state legislators, who have proposed two separate bills aimed at banning social media access by schools and potential employers. The ACLU is aggressively supporting the bills.

“This is an invasion of privacy. People have so much personal information on their pages now. A person can treat it almost like a diary,” said Goemann, the Maryland ACLU legislative director. “And (interviewers and schools) are also invading other people’s privacy. They get access to that individual’s posts and all their friends. There is a lot of private information there.”

Maryland’s Department of Corrections policy first came to light last year, when corrections officer Robert Collins complained to the ACLU that he was forced to surrender his Facebook user name and password during an interview. The state agency suspended the policy for 45 days, and eventually settled on the “shoulder-surfing” substitute.

“My fellow officers and I should not have to allow the government to view our personal Facebook posts  and those of our friends just to keep our jobs,” Collins said to the ACLU at the time.

Agency spokesman Rick Binetti confirmed the new policy, but wouldn’t comment on it or the proposed law which may ban it. It’s easy to see why an agency that hires prison guards would want to sneak a peek at potential employees’ private online lives. Goemann said that prisons are trying to avoid hiring guards with potential gang ties — the agency told the ACLU it had reviewed 2,689 applicants via social media, and denied employment to seven because of items found on their pages.

“All seven of these individuals’ social media applications contained pictures of them showing verified gang signs (signs commonly known to law enforcement which are utilized by gangs),” the Department of Corrections told the ACLU  in response to questions it asked about the program. It stressed the voluntary nature of social media inspection, noting that five of the 80 employees hired in the last three hiring cycles didn’t provide access.

For student athletes, though, the access isn’t voluntary. No access, no sports.

“They’re saying to students if you want to play, you have to friend a coach. That’s very troubling,” said Shear, the D.C. lawyer.  “A good analogy for this, in the offline world, would it be acceptable for schools to require athletes to bug their off-campus apartments? Does a school have a right to know who all your friends are?”

There have been many high-profile embarrassing moments born of the toxic combination of student-athletes and Twitter. North Carolina defensive lineman Marvin Austin tweeted about expensive purchases on his account two years ago, then became subject of an NCAA investigation about improper conduct with a player agent.

The incident led, in part, to the school’s aforementioned aggressive social media policy.

So it’s not surprising that many schools want to keep a careful eye on what students are posting online.

But avoiding an uncomfortable moment is not a good enough reason to squash free speech, Spear says. Plenty of settled case law in the U.S. sides with students’ rights to express themselves publicly, he said, including numerous cases involving student newspapers. 

Public displays of protest are also protected: A landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision known as Tinker vs. the Des Moines School District said school officials couldn’t prevent students from wearing armbands protesting the Vietnam War as long as they weren’t inciting violence.

Colleges have legitimate concerns about the things students post on social media accounts, but they should “deal with that issue the way they deal with everything else. They should educate,” Shear said.

“Schools are in the business of educating, not spying,” he added. “We don’t hire private investigators to follow students wherever they go. If students say stupid things online, they should educate them … not engage in prior restraint.”

Goemann also noted that the rush to social media monitoring raises an often overlooked legal concern: It’s against Facebook’s Terms of Service.

“You will not share your password … let anyone else access your account or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account,” the site says in its policies.

Frederic Wolens, a Facebook spokesman, wouldn’t comment on the Maryland legislative proposals, but he said many of these school and employer policies appear to violate the site’s terms.

“Under our terms, only the holder of the email address and password is considered the Facebook account owner.

We also prohibit anyone from soliciting the login information or accessing an account belonging to someone else,” he said in a statement to msnbc.com. Wolens said Facebook has yet to take a position on collegiate social media monitoring.

Social media monitoring on colleges, while spreading quickly among athletic departments, seems to be limited to athletes at the moment. There’s nothing stopping schools from applying the same policies to other students, however.  And Shear says he’s heard from college applicants that interviewers have requested Facebook or Twitter login information during in-person screenings.

The practice seems less common among employers, but scattered incidents are gaining attention from state lawmakers. The blog Tecca.com last year showed what it said was an image of an application for a clerical job with a North Carolina police department that included the following question:

“Do you have any web page accounts such as Facebook, Myspace, etc.?  If so, list your username and password.”

And the state of Illinois has followed Maryland’s lead and is considering similar legislation to ban social media password demands by employers.

But Shear says a patchwork of state laws isn’t good enough when the stakes are this high.

“We need a federal law dealing with this,” he said. “After 9/11, we have a culture where some people think it’s OK for the government to be this involved in our lives, that it’s OK to turn everything over to the government. But it’s not. We still have privacy rights in this country, and we still have a Constitution.”

My colleague Jim Mitchell wrote this Opinion blog entry last week about the Lancaster school district’s partnership with Texas Instruments and Educate Texas to create a district-wide focus on science, technology, engineering and math. Jim does a good job explaining the STEM initiative in his entry and in this recent editorial from the Morning News.

What interests me about this experiment is that if it can be done in Lancaster it can be done anywhere. The demographics of the Lancaster district reflect the changing demographics of Texas: the kids are largely minority and low-income. If the effort to bake more science and math into the curriculum succeeds there, it shows that spreading a STEM focus across a district can happen in the many other districts that reflect Lancaster’s student demographics.

As I blogged here recently, the Hidalgo and San Juan/Pharr/Alamo districts already have introduced something similar in the Rio Grande Valley. So, Lancaster isn’t the first to experiment with this concept. But Lancaster’s attempt to rigorously focus on the subjects that are increasingly linked to good-paying jobs bears watching. If the model works there, it offers a way forward for many other districts.