|
Compression |
Boys' Choir's looking good
The Tallahassee Boys' Choir - an esteem-building experiment conducted by FSU's School of Social Work - seems to be working fine.
The 85 members, 7 to 18 years old, were invited to sing Jan. 28 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. They've already sung in the Bahamas. Back in school, 90 percent are on the honor roll.
"As much faith as I've had, I never thought - I never realized - God would help us make it this fast," said the director of the choir, FSU associate professor Earle Lee. "(The boys) are on cloud nine and I'll have to take them back down."
His dean, Dianne Montgomery, probably wouldn't want him to bring them too far down.
"I don't think I've ever watched them without getting goose bumps," she said of the choir, which was organized just two years ago.
FSU music research No. 1
When it comes to music therapy and music education, FSU's School of Music is number one.
The honor was given this fall by the Journal of Research in Music Education.
FSU Professor Clifford Madsen was named the most productive researcher and the "most eminent," determined by the number of citations of his work from 1953 to 1992.
A condom for the ladies?
Women don't like the female condom, whether they know about it or not, according to a survey by David Sly, a professor at FSU's Center for the Study of Population.
Though it can be inserted hours before it's needed and can be controlled by the women users, most of the women weren't interested.
Of 231 surveyed (ages 25 to 34), 18 percent of the whites, 40 percent of the blacks and 30 percent of the Hispanics said they would give it a try.
Although 94 percent of the women who had tried it said the instructions were easy to follow, only 30 percent said they liked it even "somewhat."
Forty-six percent of the women in the study were single, 37 percent were married and 17 percent were divorced, widowed or separated.
Native art with a message
A living diorama - "Have Your Picture Taken with a Native American" - will be performed by James Luna, who describes himself as an Indian and an artist, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 13 at FSU's Museum of Fine Arts.
Luna's performance will kick off the exhibition: Dimensions of Native America.
The show concentrates on the movement of Native Americans between their own tribes and the modern American world.
Curated by Jehanne Teilhet-Fisk and Robin Nigh, it is based on research by graduate students on what happens when the cultures of the Americas, Native and non-Native, have encountered each other.
Scott grabs satellite
FSU's most famous grad last fall was Winston Scott (B.A. in music, 1972), the astronaut who performed a series of tricky operations inside and outside the U.S. space shuttle Columbia. (A year before, our famous astronaut grad was Norman Thagard, who was the first American to join the Russians on their Mir satellite, but now he's quietly teaching engineer-heroes-to-be at FSU.)
Scott had the world's attention when he and colleague Takao Doi grabbed an out-of-control satellite outside Columbia and returned it to the shuttle.
Scott showed a pretty good sense of humor out in space.
At 170 miles above the earth, outside the satellite, but keeping up with it, Scott could have been Han Solo: "Now that we've got it, Mr. Doi," he said of the 3,000-pound satellite they were holding, "let's decide what we're going to do with it."
With his courage, brains and sense of humor, maybe he'd make us another good professor.
Love's work on the road
FSU art professor Ed Love is lending one of his sculptures to a teaching exhibit sponsored by Rutgers University.
This year and next, Love's Monument to Paul Robeson will go to Rutgers, N.J., Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York City with an exhibit called Robeson: Here I stand.
The exhibit is a celebration of Robeson's birth -100 years ago on April 9, 1998. Robeson, who died in 1976, was best known for singing in an unforgettable deep voice (Old Man River), acting (Othello on Broadway), fierce defense of the oppressed and, some thought with admiration and others with outrage, far-left politics.
He was also an athlete, a graduate of Columbia Law School, and a victim of the McCarthy era.
But why is Rutgers the sponsor of such a tribute - by the arts, to one of America's greats in another art? Well, he was the second black student to graduate from Rutgers, and he was class valedictorian. And not only that, he played football - all-American end - for Rutgers
New man at the top
Adam Herbert, president of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, has replaced Charles Reed as chancellor of the state's 10 universities.
Herbert, 54, is a professor and widely admired academic administrator.
He takes over when the university system is expecting 100,000 more students by 2010. But he says he is developing a strategy to deal with the influx, just as he did at UNF, when its enrollment increased by 4,000 students while he was president.
The Board of Regents voted unanimously Jan. 6 to hire Herbert to replace Reed, who accepted an offer to become chancellor of the California State University System.
Grad to have art opening
Kathleen Wilson will have a debut New York gallery exhibit, titled Upon Reflection, this spring at Asyl Gallery, 547 W 27th Street, NYC 10001. It opens Feb. 21 and runs through March 14.
Wilson grew up in Connecticut and graduated in 1981 with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. From 1983 through 1986, she lived in Florence, Italy, where she earned a master's in fine arts from Florida State University.
Noles, Bulls and Gators
If the combination of Noles, Bulls and Gators means something to you, or even if you're sentimental about just one of the three, there may be a store for you in Temple Terrace.
The owner of NBG, opened last June to sell sports memorabilia, picked the two big college teams and the local team, the University of South Florida's one-year-old Bulls (nothing from the other Bulls, Chicago's pro basketball team, or the other locals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Can't you get it all - t-shirts, banners, key rings and cups - in any decent mall in nearby Tampa?
Sure, but where else would you find the special Noles-Bulls-Gators combination?
Besides, owner Rick Elm told the Tampa Tribune, "people are tired of going to the malls and big stores."
His little store is at the corner of Bullard Parkway and North 56th Street, if you know the area.
When criminals get old
It's appealing to put chronic criminals away for life - even if their crimes are minor - but new FSU research suggests it's not worth the money.
Since most crimes are committed by people aged 17-21, and almost none by people over 40, it makes sense to send middle-aged inmates home where they might support themselves legally.
"The folks that we currently release in their '40s and '50s seldom come back (to prison)," said Carl Schmertmann, associate professor of economics at FSU's Center for the Study of Population. "...A three-strikes law (life imprisonment for every person convicted three times) could eventually mean a 20-fold increase in the number of people over 60 in Florida prisons."
Since prisons are among the most expensive homes, the taxpayer might rather not support the old cons who aren't dangerous anymore.
But Schmertmann noted that he's studying only the cost-benefit aspect. He did not get involved in arguments about whether life sentences deter the young, or properly punish the guilty.
Distinguished Educator
Paul Hagerty earned a doctorate at FSU in 1974 and came back to Homecoming this year to be honored by the College of Education.
It wasn't his first honor. Earlier in 1997, Hagerty became Florida's Superintendent of the Year.
He's been superintendent of Seminole County schools since 1992.