Campus

Campus February 23, 2019

BGSU trustees set room & board rates for incoming freshman class

By DAVID DUPONT BG Independent News Bowling Green State University set the room rates and dining charges for the incoming class of Falcons, Friday. Those students, and any juniors and seniors who still live in residence halls, will pay on average 2.5 percent more than students paid this year. The cost of a standard double room, the rate that must be reported to the state, is going up 2.8 percent. The lowest charge will be for a standard double in a Tier 1 residence hall (Kreischer, Kohl, and McDonald) will be $2,945 per semester. The most expensive would be super single, or one occupant in a double room, in a Tier 3 residence hall (Centennial, Falcon Heights, Greek Village, or apartments) at $4,230. There will be no increase in Greek Village parlor fees assessed  fraternity and sorority members who do not live in the village. Residence halls are categorized based on amenities. The cost of meal plans will increase 1.5 percent for the incoming class. A basic Bronze food plan will be $1,745 a semester, or an increase of $1.67 a week. These increases, said Sheri Stoll chief financial officer, will keep BGSU as the fifth least expensive of the state’s pubic four-year institutions, with an estimated total annual cost of $20,388. The incoming class will be the second covered by the Falcon Tuition Guarantee. Under that system, students are guaranteed that their costs will in large part stay the same for four years. The university is allowed to raise certain course fees that pay for an enhancement that adds value to the class or materials, Stoll explained. Those include, for example, certain lab materials in forensic science course.  The university is also allowed to pass along increases in fees paid by students to third party providers. Those pass-through charges are billed through the university so students can pay them with financial aid money, Stoll said. The largest of those fees are in the aviation program where students pay thousands for various flight instruction. The university’s first winter session was declared a success with 1,062 students, 983 of them undergraduates,…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 23, 2019.
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Campus February 16, 2019

Online programs, College Credit Plus provide pathway for BGSU enrollment growth

By DAVID DUPONT BG Independent News Bowling Green State University is doing well attracting more students, and holding onto them once they enroll. The university released its 15-day enrollment report last week. It showed that total enrollment increased 1.7  percent, to 18,766, graduate and undergraduate students on both the Bowling Green and Firelands campuses. Total enrollment in Bowling Green is up 1.5 percent to 16,799. Cecilia Castellano, vice president for enrollment management, said the growth comes in a lot of ways.  Both the ecampus and distance learning programs are seeing increases, and the university now has more than 2,000 students taking courses through the College Credit Plus program, an increase of abut 10 percent over last year. Those students are taking courses online, on campus, or in their high schools.  The number of graduate students is down by 21 students, or just under 1 percent. Not many graduate students initially enroll for the spring semester, and the number of graduate students who graduated in December increased. While graduate students on campus decreased by 236, or 11.6 percent, to 1807, that was made up by increases in those taking courses online, the report showed. Castellano said she expects those numbers to increase as new professional graduate programs kick in next fall. The 3.7 percent  increase in Firelands enrollment bucks the usual trend of two-year schools having declining enrollment when the economy is strong. Driving that growth, Castellano said, is the Pathways program, which brings Firelands students to the Bowling Green campus, where they take a certain set of courses taught by Firelands faculty. The program is intended to help them successfully transition in bachelor’s degree programs at BGSU. When it started in fall 2014, 19 students were enrolled. The program now has 215 students. “The faculty at Firelands and the support services  that we’re providing are really helping to ensure those students are successful,” she said. “We’re seeing the persistence of that group being very similar to the Bowling Green campus.” Persistence counts the number of first-time, full-time students who enter in the fall semester who continue on into the spring…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 16, 2019.

Agriculture, Campus, Community Voices, Technology February 16, 2019

BGSU supports work of young entrepreneurs

From BGSU OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS It is no secret that Bowling Green State University houses a number of centers and laboratories for students to develop their research and innovations. But many of these facilities are also open for public partnerships. Private companies, nonprofit organizations and the general public can collaborate with the University to better develop potential business ventures. That’s exactly what two Bowling Green High School students did in 2018. Jake Stucker and Sean O’Donnell created a product idea aimed at helping protect bodies of water from being polluted or damaged by agricultural runoff. The two pitched their idea at the 2018 DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) and took second place in the Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan category, in which more than 200 qualifiers from around the world competed. Not to mention, the ICDC hosts more than 19,000 students annually in Atlanta. Stucker, who is currently taking general studies writing at BGSU through the College Credit Plus (CCP) program, and O’Donnell are fortunate in that they both have personal connections to BGSU alumni at local institutions of higher learning. Stucker’s mother, Jenn Stucker, is an associate professor of graphic design at BGSU, while O’Donnell’s mother, Amy O’Donnell, is a career development lecturer in the College of Business and Innovation at the University of Toledo. Because of these connections, the two students were able to better assemble an advisory team that opened the doors to BGSU’s Collab Lab and UT’s Maker Society. In developing their idea and prototype, Stucker and O’Donnell utilized the Collab Lab, a 2,000-square-foot facility designed for innovative thinking. “We are thrilled that Jake and Sean were able to use the resources at the Collab Lab to advance their project,” said Dr. Jerry Schnepp, Collab Lab director. “I hope that their example will inspire others in the community to come to the Collab Lab to explore new technology, engage in collaborative work and develop innovative solutions.” The Collab Lab offers the technology and expertise to help teams of innovators work together to conceive, create, develop and refine new products and services. This creative, hands-on space is open to students, faculty, staff…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 16, 2019.

Arts and Entertainment, Campus, Music February 15, 2019

Musical dreams come true at BGSU Concerto Concert

By DAVID DUPONT  BG Independent News For Mei-Yi Wang performing the first movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with at the Concerto Concert at Bowling Green State University is a dream come true. Wang  is one of the winners in the College of Musical Arts’ annual Competitions in Musical Performance.  Last December 69 students vied for the chance to perform a concerto with the BG Philharmonia.  Wang first heard the Prokofiev concerto when she was in junior high school in Taiwan. “It was so amazing. The piano, the orchestra, the sound was very fantastic. So I’m dreaming I should play this piece someday.” That time will come as Wang and three other competition winners will perform with the Bowling Green Philharmonia, Saturday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall. Tickets are available at bgsu.edu/arts or by calling the box office at 419-372-8171. Other soloists are: Flutist Alec Porter, a junior, performing three movements from John Corigliano’s “Pied Piper Fantasy.”Saxophonist Johnathan Kierspe, a second year graduate student in music performance, performing Marius Constant’s Concertante for Saxophone.Erin Redick, a third year student from Fletcher, who will perform Emmanuel Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings Also, receiving top prizes at the competition were: composer Emilio Jose Gonzalez who will have his piece performed at next fall’s New Music Festival, and Ariel Magno de Costa, who received the Virginia Marks Collaborative Piano Award. Erin Redick will perform Emmanuel Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings at the Concerto Concert. Redick describes herself as shy and a percussionist who doesn’t like to play loudly even though she started in music because she wanted to be in a rock band. Third year student from Fletcher said she decided to compete this year because “it would force me out of my comfort zone. … I’m a more reserved player. This has broken me out of my shell.” Emmanuel Séjourné’s concerto, Redick said, is accessible. “It’s just tonal enough that it’s easy to listen to, but it’s challenging at the same time.” Her teacher Daniel Piccolo had her listen to three possible concertos to prepare for the competition. It…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 15, 2019.

Arts and Entertainment, Campus, Theater February 14, 2019

Players’ ‘Music Man’ celebrates the joy art brings to the community

By DAVID DUPONT BG Independent News  “The Music Man” is the perfect musical for community theater. And the Black Swamp Players production that opens Friday only goes to prove that point. The classic Meredith Willson is a celebration of the power of the arts to bring people together. The show runs weekends through Sunday, Feb. 24. (Ya Got) Trouble,” trouble in River City, warns Professor Harold Hill (Bradley King). This revelation comes from an unlikely source. Traveling huckster Professor Harold Hill (Bradley King) shows up in River City a town of crabbed sensibilities. Tight-fisted, provincial, and emotionally repressed. “Iowa Stubborn” as one number puts it. He seems drawn to the place by the opinions of his fellow traveling salesmen that Iowa is a hard not to crack. Bill is a scam artist who sells people on the idea of forming a boys band. He’s left a trail of angry marks and broken hearts. This Iowa town is just the challenge he revels in. Little does he know what lies before him.  First there’s the town librarian and piano teacher Marion Paroo (Jennifer Braun) who is armed with a shelf of reference books and musical knowledge — something Hill lacks. He does have a line of talk though. King’s Hill trades in the hard sell — his descendants undoubtedly sold time shares in the 1980s. He doesn’t have the charm of other versions of this character, but he knows how to play on the townspeople’s vanity especially when it comes to their children. Jennifer Braun and Alice Walters sing “Goodnight, My Someone” He’s just as determined when it comes to winning the heart of the piano teacher, something he does wherever he goes as a way of disarming any opposition. Mayor Shinn (Keith Guion) who presides over River City with comic bluster, isn’t to be so fooled, especially since Hill has singled out the pool table in the billiards hall that Shinn owns as the threat to the morality of the town’s young people that his band will counter. Our own local townsfolk bring these River City residents to life with…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 14, 2019.

Arts and Entertainment, Campus, Community Voices, Film, Music, Theater, Visual art February 14, 2019

BGSU Arts Events through March 6

Feb. 16 – The Bowling Green Philharmonia will present its 52nd annual Concerto Concert. Winners of the Competitions in Music Performance will perform concertos with the Philharmonia. The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in Kobacker Hall at the Moore Musical Arts Center. Advance tickets for the event are $7 for adults, $3 for children and students. All tickets are $10 on the day of the performance. Tickets are available at bgsu.edu/arts or by calling the box office at 419-372-8171. Feb. 17 – The Annual Undergraduate Art and Design Exhibition opens its two-week run with a reception from 2-4 p.m. A juried selection of art in all media by students in the BGSU School of Art will be displayed in the Dorothy Uber Bryan and Willard Wankelman galleries in the Fine Arts Center. The exhibition runs through March 3. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 6-9 p.m. Thursdays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Free Feb. 17 – Members of the BGSU College of Musical Arts faculty will perform at the Great Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, 2445 Monroe St., Toledo. The chamber music concert will begin at 3 p.m. The performance is free; onsite parking is $7 for nonmembers of the museum. Feb. 18 – The BGSU College of Musical Arts welcomes guest artist Robert Weirich on piano. Weirich, who recently retired from university teaching, has performed at venues including Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Tanglewood, Ravinia and Marlboro. He is a past president of the College Music Society and twice received the Educational Press Achievement Award for his writing. His piano recital will begin at 8 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall at the Moore Musical Arts Center. FreeFeb. 18 – The BGSU School of Art welcomes photographer Tim Archibald for a lecture about his book “Echolilia,” a collection of photographs that share the relationship between him and his son, who is on the autism spectrum. He will speak at 5 p.m. in 204 Fine Arts Center. Free Feb. 19 – Director Jordan Peele’s 2017 debut film “Get Out” is the featured screening at…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 14, 2019.

Campus, Uncategorized February 13, 2019

BGSU grad students make pitch to have best Three-Minute Thesis talk

By DAVID DUPONT  BG Independent News And the winner of the first Three-Minute Thesis  competition at Bowling Green State University is … Kacie Pummill, a graduate student is Speech-Language Pathology. Pummill is studying how to help people suffering from speech disorders make themselves understood. The competition is aimed at helping graduate students make their own research, often on arcane topics, understandable to the general public. Coming away from the recent Three-Minute Thesis Competition, it was hard not to feel both a little bit smarter, and more than a little bit humble, because the knowledge on display. Seventeen graduate students presented three-minute presentations on some aspect of their research. An “elevator speech” is the term used by Dean of the Graduate College Peggy Booth. The topics covered ranged from the intricacies of computer science to Star Wars. The second contestant, Kevin Oyale Chiteri from biological sciences presented on : “Functional Analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana Organic Cation Transporters (OCT5 & OCT 1) genes in Polyamine Transport in Plants.” Deep work to be sure. Not all topics were as daunting. Aju James, from American Culture Studies, talked about the role of stand-up comedy in developing an urban community in Mumbai. Regardless of the topic, each contestant could only use one slide and three minutes. No props, no poems, no costumes, no song and dance, and no rap. Just spoken word.  A “compelling oration,” Booth said, that challenges student to communicate their research ideas and highlight their significance for a non-specialist audience. And, she noted, “it’s fun.” The rules, Booth explained, are set by the University of Queensland, the originator of the competition.The Australian institution introduced the Three-Minute Thesis concept 10 years ago, and it proved so popular that the school trademarked it. Now 600 universities around the world host competitions with BGSU being one of the newest additions.  Pummill, who comes from Chillicothe, said she didn’t expect to win. “I just wanted to do this for myself and develop an elevator pitch and get to know my research in a way that I can explain it to my family members, relatives, and friends…

Posted by:
David Dupont on February 13, 2019.