COMPRESSION / OCTOBER 1999

Promising pick for Appleton

FSU's art museum in Ocala has acquired a director who is known best for building the permanent collection of the last museum he ran, a university art gallery in Canada.
Jeffrey Spalding, curator of the gallery at the University of Lethbridge in Calgary, Alberta, for 17 years, has taken over the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, jointly owned by FSU and Central Florida Community College.
In Spalding's years at Lethbridge, the gallery's collection grew from 212 items to more than 15,000.
"The enormous growth and renown of the University of Lethbridge collection is solely attributable to Jeffrey Spalding's vision and perspicacity," said Jerry Draper, dean of FSU's School of Visual Arts and Dance. "His range of knowledge covers the long history of art and many cultures."
Spalding promises not only to build the Appleton collection, but also to encourage emerging artists and bring to the museum "an expressive flair ... to teach as much by evocative mood, rather than exclusively by lengthy didactic text panels."
"A museum that will not keep the playful, joyful spirit of art within its programs will soon lose its audience," Spalding said.

Politics and morals

The Romans had laws regulating sexual behavior before the Christians attempted it, an FSU classics professor has revealed.
In 18 B.C., in fact, the Roman Emperor Augustus installed the first sex codes for men, even though Augustus himself was not known for monogamous behavior, according to FSU's Hans-Friedrich Mueller.
Though Romans had always believed in chaste women, it was not until Augustus that men's sexual behavior was regulated.
Augustus ruled that sexual activities with freeborn boys or girls or unmarried women who were citizens were criminal acts, punishable by exile or death.
A few centuries later, the codes cracked down further, criminalizing passive homosexual behavior among men (but not the dominant role).
Mueller said the sex laws had political purposes. Enemies could be exiled or killed on charges of illegal sexual behavior, and morality campaigns helped the emperor. Religious leaders preached that pagan gods were angry about Romans' sexual excesses, and could be appeased if Romans would restrain their sexual behavior and support the emperor.
And the channeling of male sexual behavior to their wives was expected to raise the birth rates of the upper class. The hope was that marriage and procreation would keep the ruling class large enough to stay in power.

Grad produces photo exhibit

A Florida State grad - Steve Cambron ('88 BA statistics) - is producer of a Time magazine traveling exhibit of photographs of American presidents. Cambron is a Time sales development manager.
The exhibit of some of the best work of major photographers is accompanied by observations by High Sidey, Time columnist who has written about American presidents since 1957.
The exhibit opened in February in Independence, Mo., and will appear at presidential libraries and museums through the year 2000.
Information and photos from the exhibit are available at www. presidentsonline.com.

Study abroad reunion

Students and faculty who participated in any of Florida State's international programs from the summer of 1995 through the summer of 1999 are invited to an open house Friday, Oct. 15, from 2:30 - 5 pm, at A5500 University Center. The staff asks for an RSVP via email: intprog@www.fsu.edu or by phone 850-644-3272, or 800-374-8581.

Raising money

Maclay School, Tallahassee's 32-year-old private kindergarten through high school, has found an effective way to raise money from fans of college football.
The driveway in front of the school is named after Bobby Bowden or Steve Spurrier, depending on whose fans have donated the most to Maclay.
For three years, the sign said Spurrier Blvd., but this year, the Council of Chiefs showed up with almost $3,000, enough to take down the Spurrier street sign and replace it with one they like better: 23-12 Bowden Blvd., the sign says, 23-12 being the FSU-UF game score from last season. Ann Bowden, wife of Florida State's head football coach, came out in August to hang the new sign.
Maclay headmaster Bill Jablon said the money would be used to enhance Maclay's academic programs.

Doctoral degrees

Florida State ranked 11th in the nation this year in awarding doctoral degrees to African Americans. The ranking, by the magazine Black Issues in Higher Education, counts Ph.D.s in all disciplines.

Busy law professor

Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore commuted a death sentence to life in prison without parole in May, and gave substantial credit for his decision to the prosecutor.
The murderer was Calvin Eugene Swann, and the prosecutor said he might have sought life without parole if it had been available in 1993, when Swann was convicted of a murder and robbery.
"Swann's medical records, spanning over 25 years, show repeated diagnoses of a severe and specific mental illness," the Governor said. "Swann committed his crime while he was not medicated for his mental illness. Consistent with those diagnoses, some Department of Corrections experts confirm that Swann suffers from a severe mental impairment. His behavior is at times nothing short of bizarre and totally devoid of rationality."
Gilmore noted that the jury that sentenced Swann did not have all the facts necessary to make the decision.
How did Gilmore know all that?
Swann had a team of defense lawyers on appeal, and one of them was FSU Law Professor Mark E. Olive, who said Swann was "the antithesis of who the death penalty ought to be for."
"He certainly is too crazy to be executed," Olive said. "He is a pitiful picture of humanity."

Spreading the word

Florida State's influence can go anywhere. In Lithuania, for example, a professor with an FSU Ph.D. in public administration has set up a public administration department at Kaunas Technological University.
Edward J. Jasaitis, who has U.S. and Lithuanian citizenship, is helping his native country replace the Soviet dictatorship of ten years ago with a well-run democracy. Jasaitis returned to Lithuania in 1993 after several decades of U.S. Army service (he retired as a lieutenant colonel), teaching and writing.
Besides teaching public administration at a university, Jasaitis writes and consults extensively on the best way to establish and nourish an effective public sector in a Baltic democracy.

Kiosks make life easier

FSU students - about 100 a day for a start - are doing one-stop shopping for information this year with the new StudentsFirst computer kiosks at the Oglesby Union and University Center.
The kiosks, which were opened in May, give students faster access to their financial records, course registration, parking services, tuition costs and much more.
Students also have access to real people to answer their questions, if they choose, without having to stand in long lines.
"I came (to StudentsFirst) to find out what the number is for the Florida's Bright Future Scholarship, and they gave me a booklet and told me where to go," said Andrew Geaslen, an FSU junior majoring in political science. "Today, I've been to the FSU Card Center, the bank, Thagard Student Health Center and to get a parking decal. There were no lines here and I didn't have to wait to get the information I needed."
Students can register for classes, check their grades and financial status, change their personal information and print their schedules or unofficial transcripts on computers all over campus or on their own computers through the Students-First Web services. They can also get help from employees on anything from where to buy parking decals to when they will receive financial aid.
Larry Rappa, the manager of StudentsFirst, estimated that more than 100 students a day used the services this summer and that number is expected to increase as more kiosks are added.

Pain is not the problem

A doctoral dissertation at Florida State suggests that sick people can stand pain more than they can stand depression.
Elizabeth Mayfield Arnold, who received a doctorate in December, had interviewed 148 people with serious illness - cancer, AIDS, cardiovascular disease, lung disease or diabetes - and found that patients who considered suicide were more likely to cite depression, insufficient social support and hopelessness than pain or anxiety.
She said about half the patients she surveyed told her they had considered suicide. More men than women, and more people with no religious preference, were thinking of suicide. She said neither age nor the cost of medical care made a difference.

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