There will be 12 new faces in front of KSC classrooms this fall semester. Here they are:
New Faculty
His Time at KSC Prominent in Ronn Cabaniol ’68’s First Kindle Novel
Ronn Cabaniol ’68, a former English major who taught American lit and drama for 35 years, has recently published his first novel on Amazon’s Kindle: Journey from Blue: the Life and Times of a Baby Boomer, and his days at KSC in the 60s have a big part in it. The story “is a memoir that I wrote in the third person giving the main characters fictional names,” Cabaniol explained. “Almost everything in the novel is true, probably about 95 percent. Besides my wonderfully adventurous four years at KSC from 1964 to 1968, there are other parts of the novel about Keene when we moved back for a year in 1985 when I was a reporter at WKNE and published a short story with Yankee Mag called “The Monadnock Roar,” which can be found on the magazine’s website under “Classics.” We also lived in Peterborough in 1976 and several notable New Hampshire celebs play a part there. If you go into the Keene State archives, you should find that I drew a popular cartoon in the school paper for many years called “Roscoe.”
Cabaniol has already followed his first novel with a second, Forgotten Angels, which is set around Buzzards Bay and is also available for Kindle.
Where’d I See That?
What is this? Where is it? And what the heck’s it doing there?
Stumped? Check out “What’s Up with the Gravity Monument” in the upcoming issue of Keene State Today—coming soon! If you do know what this tombstone-like monument is doing on campus, write your explanation on a piece of paper, stick it inside a case with a primo 1954 King 2B trombone, and send it to Newsline, 120 Alumni Center, 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435. Or use the “comments” link, below.
Mark Your Calendar: Teen Substance Abuse Panel Aug. 27
The Monadnock region has a serious substance abuse problem. Our high school students have a higher incidence of substance abuse in some categories than the state average, and New Hampshire has a higher incidence rate in some categories than the national average. Our students are at risk, and Health Science Professor Marj Droppa and her students will conduct research during the fall semester to better understand and help reduce the problem. They will collect their data through interviews with Keene High School students and parents. “To change behavior, you have to change policy,” Dr. Droppa explained. So she and her students hope to gain insights into how and why Keene High students are misusing drugs and alcohol and then use that information to influence changes in the school district’s policy on this kind of abuse.
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Three Film Alums Nominated for Emmys
Three Film Studies alums, Craig Mellish, Dave Mast ’96, and Meagan Frappiea ’06, have been nominated for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation’s Emmy Awards in the Sound Editing category for their work on Florentine Film’s The Dust Bowl (2012) and The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009).
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Prof. Baures Receives Grant to Make Oil Pipelines Safer
Chemistry Professor and David F. Putnam Chair Paul Baures has been awarded a $65,000 grant from the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) to conduct research on a significant problem that plagues the production of natural gas and oil.
Gas hydrates are flammable solids that contain naturally occurring gases inside an ice shell. They form wherever water and gas are present together in cold temperatures and high pressures, such as at the bottom of the ocean or in the arctic permafrost. They also form readily in oil pipelines during the production or transport of petroleum, where they greatly increase the danger to the oil workers and stymie production efforts.
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Professor Waller Receives Two Prestigious Appointments
Cohen Professor for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and internationally recognized authority on genocide prevention Jim Waller was recently elected to a position on the Advisory Board for the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and named a Centennial Senior Ethics Fellow by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
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BBC Natural History Unit Turns 27 Appleton St. into Film Studio
A film team from the BBC Natural History Unit is in Keene for 14 days this month working on a program about the stages of life in animals. “It’s a bit like Trials of Life that came out 20 years ago,” said Nick Easton, of the BBC team. “It will be in six parts and, since this is a coproduction between the BBC and the Discovery Channel, it will air here in the US and in England.” The program doesn’t have a name yet, but should air in 2014. The film team is focusing on caterpillars as part of its representation of the early stage of life. Whereas the parents of most animals nurture and protect them when they’re young, caterpillars have to fend for themselves. Therefore, they’ve developed some very clever ways of survival.
The BBC team chose to film in Keene because New Hampshire is a unique pocket of caterpillar diversity, and because caterpillar authority Sam Jaffe lives here. He runs The Caterpillar Lab and has developed an educational program that he takes on tour. Easton and his crew chose to stay on campus because, since the students were gone, they could rent the whole of the house at 27 Appleton to set up their elaborate studio to film caterpillars. They’re also taking advantage of New Hampshire’s wealth of caterpillars and filming in the field.
Embrace Everything: A Junior’s Advice to Freshmen
Junior and journalism major Dylan Morrill wrapped up his eight-week summer internship at Foster’s Daily Democrat by writing a column aimed at freshmen entering college for the first time. It’s great advice from someone who’s recently been there and done that, and is still doing it.
Here’s the bottom line: “But I’m telling you, push. During your freshman year, work hard to fully appreciate your new surroundings. Whatever you have to do to embrace your college and become a fully-fledged member of its culture, do it. Trust me. There will be an incredible amount of stuff to do at your college and only four years to do it in. You don’t want to miss out. Open your eyes wide and sprint.”
Word Becomes Flesh Cast Reaches out to Community
Sharon Fantl, the Redfern Art Center’s assistant director, has secured a grant through the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) to allow the cast members of Word Becomes Flesh to discuss issues of diversity and social justice with local community members. Fantl is reaching out to KSC classes, local social-service agencies, educators from various disciplines within Keene High School, youth, and members of such on-campus offices as the Office of Diversity and Multiculturalism to invite them to participate in these discussions. Word Becomes Flesh will be performed at the Redfern Arts Center on Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m. Assistant Professor of Communication Jamie Landau will give a pre-performance talk on masculinity and patriarchal gender norms in parenting, and there will be a moderated discussion in the lobby after the performance.
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Small Business Development Center Receives SBA Grant
The Monadnock Region’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), headquartered in KSC’s Blake House, has received $89,651 in continuing funding support from the US Small Business Administration (SBA). The funding allows the SBDC to continue its work of supporting small business clients from Hanover to the Massachusetts border, and from the Vermont border to Peterborough.
“Keene State College graciously provides support that is critical to the program’s success, including office space in the Blake House, a portion of the Management Department administrative assistant’s time, support via Human Resources and the Office of Sponsored Projects & Research, and critical connections to both the Keene State and regional communities,” explained SBDC Regional Manager Rich Grogan.
The New Hampshire SBDC is part of a nationwide network that provides no cost, confidential business advising to pre-venture, start-up, and existing businesses, focusing on financial analysis, marketing, access to capital, and other management issues. “In New Hampshire, we work with about 3000 businesses each year in 200 communities, and last year we assisted those businesses with raising approximately $25 million in capital,” Grogan said.
USNH Saves Money on Healthcare, Invests It in STEM Education
The University System of New Hampshire (USNH) saved $10 million in the last fiscal year by moving to a self-insured health care plan for its employees, and by creating some administrative efficiencies. These savings will be re-invested primarily in system-wide efforts in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education to help prepare students to meet New Hampshire’s growing demand for STEM related workers.
Keene State College is working with the region’s middle and high schools to encourage students to pursue STEM-related studies as they prepare for college. Keene State is also developing programs that encourage more first- and second-year college students to major in STEM disciplines and complete their degrees. For more information, see the article in KSC Advocates.
Four Students from the University System Thank NH Legislators for Supporting Higher Ed
The New Hampshire Legislature took an important step towards supporting higher education when it passed the 2014–15 state budget, which restores $53 million in funding to the University System of New Hampshire over the next biennium. To show their appreciation, student leaders from each of the four USNH institutions—Keene State, UNH, Plymouth State, and Granite State—got together to write a letter thanking the legislature, the governor, and the citizens of New Hampshire for standing up for higher ed in New Hampshire.
The KSC student, Tyler King, from Lebanon, is a senior and the senior class representative and chair of the Student Assembly. The other student leaders were Bryan Merrill, from Londonderry, a junior at the University of New Hampshire and president of the student body; Ryan Patten, from Wolfeboro, a senior at Plymouth State University and the Student Senate speaker; and Kim Hallet, from Rochester, a senior at Granite State College and a student trustee on the USNH Board of Trustees during the budgetary process, in addition to being the GSC student representative to the board.
Read their thoughtful letter in the Union Leader or on the KSC Advocates site.
Where’d I See That?
Where is this? What is it? Why is it there?
If you think you know the answer, write it on a piece of paper and stick it inside a first edition of Dallas Lore Sharp’s Watcher in the Woods and send it to Newsline, 120 Alumni Center, 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435. Or use the “comments” link, below.
Honors Students Visit Cuba
Six students in the Honors Program traveled to Cuba recently as part of their Global Engagement requirement. The trip—led by retired Political Science Professor Chuck Weed and his son, Tim, who has taught writing at KSC—began in Havana and took in several towns and sites, including the Bay of Pigs, Trinidad (a beautifully preserved colonial city), museums, factories, farms, and a national park. Each student worked on a chosen research topic, which included primary and secondary education, the health delivery system, sports as a unifier, the genres of Cuban music, sites and memories of mafiosa in pre-revolution Cuba, and organic agriculture. As Dr. Weed explained, the trip “was certainly varied enough to give more than a surface introduction to a complex country and its citizens.”
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Third Holocaust and Genocide Studies Major Interns at Auschwitz Institute
For the third consecutive year, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), a New York-based organization dedicated to building a worldwide network of leaders with the professional tools and the personal commitment to prevent genocide, has accepted an intern from Keene State’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies program. This year, it is junior Eleni Guptill. The Auschwitz Institute invites government policymakers, military leaders, and NGO activists, through its core program, the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention, to the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to teach them to recognize the signs of genocide and use their influence to stop it. The prestigious internship is very competitive, and offers a rare opportunity to one of our finest students.
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