1. REED ASSUMES PROVOST RESPONSIBILITIES

President Glenn Mroz announced Dec. 16 that, by mutual agreement, Kent Wray will no longer serve as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

David Reed, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, has temporarily assumed the duties of provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. A national search for a replacement will begin soon.

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2. RESEARCHERS RECEIVE $750,000 DOE GRANT TO HELP IN HUNT FOR OIL

Finding oil is a dicey proposition, as roller-coaster gas prices attest. But Department Chair Wayne Pennington and Research Professor Roger Turpening of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences hope to make it a little easier, with the help of a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The problem with finding oil, or course, is the stubborn opacity of dirt. Geophysicists do their best to overcome this through the use of seismic imaging techniques. They work like ultrasound, sending out sound waves from the surface of the earth down toward potential oil reservoirs; the waves that bounce back are interpreted at the receiving end to reveal (or not) any signs of oil. However, most undiscovered oil is very deep, so by the time these echoes come back to the surface, the data they yield can sometimes seem almost as baffling as chicken scratch.

Pennington shows an image of a reservoir near Traverse City. "It's about 4,500 feet deep," he says. "It's hard to image something carefully that's that far away."

In fact, oil companies poked several deep holes in the ground before finally hitting this 70-acre reservoir, which was once a coral reef. It has since yielded about 1 million barrels of oil worth $20 million to $30 million.

Funded by the DOE, the researchers are using those dry holes to get a lot closer to the reef with their seismic imaging equipment. They hope that this new proximity will yield much better pictures of what's down there.

Using a technique known as crosswell seismic imaging, they will lower equipment deep into two wells, one on either side of the ancient reef. One side will send out seismic waves, and the other will receive them.

This way, the scientists expect to get a much clearer view of the reef's composition. "We'll use the amplitudes of the reflected seismic waves to tell us about the characteristics of the rock and the fluids that saturate the rock," Pennington said. "Some places have gas, some have water, and some have oil, and the amplitudes of the reflected waves will vary depending on the fluid."

They don't expect to end America's oil shortage in the near future. Underground, the earth is such a complicated place that seismic imaging is always tricky. "It's a big mess down there," Turpening admits.

Pennington agrees. "There's a lot of stuff going on, and on the first try, we'll probably do something wrong."

However, once they learn from those inevitable mistakes, they will bring their improved technology to a commercial drilling site and use it to help narrow down where the oil is and where it isn't.

"This will help find better ways to characterize the interior of these reefs," Turpening said. "We'll get a lot clearer image."

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3. SCAM ALERT: FAKE BANK EMAILS

Email users at Michigan Tech and lots of other places have received authentic-looking email claiming to be from Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual and other banks. The email directs you to a website that looks official, but isn't, asking you to provide account information.

Don't do this. Once the criminals have your account information, they will pretend to be you and steal your money.

A simple rule of thumb: If someone contacts you first and asks you to give them your account information, they are crooks.

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4. MILEAGE RATE GOES UP

As of Jan. 1, the mileage reimbursement rate for university-related travel is 40.5 cents per mile, Accounting Services has announced. This is an increase from the previous rate of 37.5 cents per mile.

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5. TEACHING AT TECH: STUDENT AS PATIENT
by William Kennedy, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development

If you had to pick a metaphor to describe the relationship between teacher and student, what would yours be? If you have taught for awhile, and if you have noticed that students vary greatly from one another, you might respond that no one metaphor really fits the bill. But, if you had to pick a primary metaphor for what you do as a teacher in most cases, what would it be? A teacher is to a student as a gardener is to a seedling; as a coach to a rookie; as a parent is to a child; as a drill sergeant is to a raw recruit?

An recent essay by Eastern New Mexico University graduate dean Phillip Shelley suggests that rather than considering students as customers, we might do better to think of them as patients and ourselves as physicians.* Shelley argues that the prevalent customer-service business model that seems increasingly to drive higher education may lead many students to misunderstand their fundamental role in the academic enterprise. Many students, Shelley says, seem to think that paying their tuition virtually entitles them to a passing grade. Meanwhile, universities across the U.S. are pouring more and more resources into providing creature comforts, luxurious amenities, and diversions to attract and retain their share of desirable customers, er, uh, students.

Are students customers? ENMU emeritus anthropology professor Everett Frost says, "not hardly." He suggests that college tuition is more akin to the co-payment that a patient makes at the doctor's office while the insurance company bears the lion's share of the actual cost. The real customers of public higher education are the citizens who pay a large portion of the bill via state and federal support, tuition givebacks and low-interest loan programs. Frost argues that we must see accountability in much broader terms than "the customer is always right."

Shelly says "student as customer" may be an appropriate notion on the nonacademic, service side of the university, but that it is not at all helpful when it comes to student/faculty interactions. Rather, he says, like patients, students must be willing to abide by and comply with the practitioners recommendations if they are to derive maximum benefit from their college experience.

Professors would also do well to see their role more broadly. Like physicians, instructors need to realize that encouraging lasting learning requires that students apply themselves, lead disciplined lives, and seek assistance when needed. Professors should see themselves as referring physicians in encouraging students to seek counseling, tutoring, financial, medical and other kinds of assistance.

My reservation with embracing Shelley's metaphor has to do with the way Americans tend to access healthcare. Too often, we wait until we are quite ill to seek medical advice that we commonly ignore. Too many of us seem to look for the magic pill that will cure our ills without changing the behaviors that made us ill in the first place. In my view, the same malaise that deadens the spirit of higher education also diminishes the benefits we receive from our healthcare system.

I remain convinced that Aristotle had a better sense of this when he observed that enlisting the heart and engaging the spirit are the only lasting means of fully activating the mind. If the tasks we put before our students are seen as artificial drudgery, it doesn't matter what educational metaphor we adopt. The question we should be asking is "how do we light the fire?" not "whose fault is it that the pail isn't getting filled?"

* "Colleges Need to Give Students Intensive Care," The Chronicle Review, January 7, 2005

 

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6. CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT JAN. 16 AT McARDLE
Submitted by the Department of Fine Arts

Chamber music of Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev will be featured on Sunday, Jan. 16, at 3 p.m. in McArdle Theatre in a concert sponsored by the Department of Fine Arts. Six prominent local musicians--Jubal Fulks, violin; Elizabeth Meyer, viola; Neil Paynter, piano; Andrew McGinnes, violin; Patrick Quimby, cello; and Mary Richards-Kallman, alto--join in presenting some of the world's most beautiful music for small ensembles.
Tickets for this mid-winter concert are available from the Rozsa Center Box Office (487-3200), at http-://www.tickets.mtu.edu, and at the door for $6 general, $3 students. More information is available from the Department of Fine Arts, 487-2067.

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7. LUNCH 'N' LEARN JAN. 12 ON CARPEL TUNNEL

Learn more about the prevention and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome at the Benefits Office's next lunch and learn on Wednesday, Jan. 12, noon-1 p.m., in the Memorial Union Red Metal Room. The speaker will be Sharon Fisher, an occupational therapist with Keweenaw Memorial Rehab and Fitness Centers.

This is one in a series sponsored in cooperation with Keweenaw Memorial Medical Center. Bring your lunch; water and other beverages will be provided. Show your Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan ID card, Group 55248, and be eligible to win some great prizes.