Toledo businessman Hal Fetterman and his wife, Susan Fetterman, have pledged $1 million to The University of Toledo to fund new research into treatments for pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

The donation is in honor of Hal Fetterman’s sister Joyce Schwyn and three close friends who lost their lives to pancreatic cancer.

“They were the ones who inspired me to go in this particular direction,” Fetterman said. “There are people passing away from pancreatic cancer all the time. The ultimate goal of this gift would be a cure for the disease.”

The Fetterman’s donation will establish the UTMC Pancreatic Cancer Research Innovation Fund. Half of the gift will be dedicated to recruiting a top-tier faculty researcher to the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences. The remaining $500,000 will be split between covering the costs of an upcoming clinical drug trial at The University of Toledo Medical Center and supporting a grant competition among faculty cancer researchers.

“The University of Toledo is grateful for the incredible generosity of Hal and Susan Fetterman,” UT President Sharon L. Gaber said. “The Fettermans have been loyal supporters of UT for years, and this new investment in the University will support important advances in medical care.”

Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare accounting for just 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States, but it is to blame for 7 percent of all cancer deaths. According to the National Cancer Institute, only lung cancer and colon cancer kill more Americans than pancreatic cancer.

Dr. F. Charles Brunicardi, the John Howard Endowed Professor of Pancreatic Surgery and director of the cancer program in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, said there is already promising research being done at UT and the Fettermans’ gift will take it to the next step.

“I’m deeply honored by the Fettermans’ generosity and their devotion toward finding better treatments for pancreatic cancer,” Brunicardi said. “We feel that we’re on the verge of a big breakthrough. We can cure mice of pancreatic cancer. What we need to now do is translate that into clinical trials, and this grant will allow us to do that.”

Fetterman felt it was important that someone make a sizeable donation to draw more attention to the cause and hopefully additional resources to advance treatment options.

“Somebody’s got to break the ice. I think that more people need to get involved with things like this,” Fetterman said. “It’s not necessarily wanting to leave a legacy, but I can’t take it with me. God’s been good to me. I didn’t go to college and I didn’t have wealthy parents. I’m basically a farm boy from out in Fulton County. I want to do what I can to help people have a better life.”

The Fettermans are longtime supporters of UT. In 2007, the couple donated $1 million to the UT athletic department to build an indoor multi-sport practice facility that would ultimately become the Fetterman Training Center. They also established the Scott Raymond Fetterman Memorial Scholarship Fund in 1996 for UT engineering students.

The University of Toledo and Toledo Museum of Art will celebrate a strengthened partnership at a signing ceremony Friday, Oct. 12 for a new initiative to advance visual literacy education.

UT President Sharon L. Gaber and TMA Director Brian Kennedy will lead the signing of a memorandum of understanding at 10 a.m. in the Museum’s Great Gallery.

The agreement formalizes an ongoing effort to expand the teaching of visual literacy to UT students across all disciplines so that they can learn the skills to read, comprehend and write visual language.

Writer Dan Kaufman will visit The University of Toledo to talk about his new book 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9 in Memorial Field House Room 2100.

He is the author of “The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics.”

In the book, Kaufman chronicles how the Badger State’s progressive political heritage was overturned in 2010, and Wisconsin went Republican for the first time in three decades in the 2016 presidential election.

“Mr. Kaufman’s book examines the undermining of progressive ideals in the United States over the past 20 years,” Dr. Charles Beatty Medina, UT associate professor of history, said. “It is an important book for understanding current events and politics in the United States and how they are negatively affecting organized labor, education and the environment.

“What we want audiences to take away from the talk is the importance of understanding the current political situation in the United States and how important political participation and knowledge is in American life.”
Kaufman is a contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker Magazine, and he has appeared on NPR.

The free, public event is sponsored by the departments of History; Political Science and Public Administration; and Sociology and Anthropology; as well as the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Program in Law and Social Thought.

Social media is increasingly being exploited to contact, recruit and sell children for sex, according to a study by The University of Toledo Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute.

The study, which was requested by the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission, reveals how traffickers quickly target and connect with vulnerable children on the Internet through social media.

Dr. Celia Williamson, UT professor of social work and director of the UT Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute

“It is vitally important to educate parents, professionals and youth – especially our middle school or teenage daughters who may be insecure – about the dangers of online predatory practices used by master manipulators,” said Dr. Celia Williamson, UT professor of social work and director of the UT Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute. “Through this outreach and education, we can help save children from becoming victims of modern-day slavery.”

“We know predators are using the internet to find their victims, and this eye-opening study highlights what a predator looks for in a victim and helps parents recognize the signs that their child may be a target,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. “Using real-life examples, this study provides valuable information that parents can use to start open and honest conversations with their children about staying safe online.”

Through a series of 16 in-depth interviews by the institute’s staff and student interns with knowledgeable members of Ohio law enforcement, judges, direct service providers, advocates and researchers who engaged with victims who were trafficked online, the study outlines how traffickers connect to vulnerable youth online, groom the children to form quicker relationships, avoid detection, and move the connections from online to in-person.

“The transition from messaging to meeting a trafficker in person is becoming less prevalent,” Williamson said. “As technology is playing a larger role in trafficking, this allows some traffickers to be able to exploit youth without meeting face-to-face. Social media helps to mask traditional cues that alert individuals to a potentially dangerous person.”

Williamson cites a 2018 report that says while 58 percent of victims eventually meet their traffickers face to face, 42 percent who initially met their trafficker online never met their trafficker in person and were still trafficked.

The experts, whose identities are not being released, said the traffickers educate themselves by studying what the victim posts on commonly used view-and-comment sites such as Facebook, Instagram or SnapChat, as well as dating apps such as Tinder, Blendr and Yellow, or webcam sites like Chatroulette and Monkey, in order to build trust.

“These guys, they learn about the girls and pretend to understand them, and so these girls, who are feeling not understood and not loved and not beautiful … these guys are very good at sort of pretending that they are all of these things and they really understand them and, ‘I know how you feel, you are beautiful,’ and just filling the hole that these girls are feeling,” said a professional contributing to the study.

One expert in Columbus shares a telling story: “The guy was reaching out to a lot of girls all day long. One girl, who is actually in a youth home, she had access to the Internet, and he connects with her on a social media platform. He drives all the way up from Columbus to Toledo, picks her up at her foster home and drives her back down to Columbus, and then traffics her here in Columbus. You know, 20, 30 years ago he would have never been able to connect with her, but because of social media, that connection was immediately made in over a few hours. He found out where she was and she told him, ‘Yeah, please come get me. I want out of here.’”

Examples of social media posts that draw the attention of a trafficker include expressions of fear, emptiness and disappointment, such as:

• “Nobody gets me.”
• “I am so sick of being single.”
• “I am so ugly.”
• “How do I look?”
• “My life sucks.”
• “She’s not my true friend.”
• “My parents don’t trust me.”
• “I’m being treated like a kid.”
• “I need to get out of here.”

Predators look for indicators of substance abuse, runaway activity and destabilization within the home.

A trafficker’s strategic response includes:

• “I understand you.”
• “I love you.”
• “I think you’re beautiful. I’ll encourage you to show your body. Use your body.”
• “I’ll make your life better.”
• “I’ll encourage you to take risks. You’re an adult.”
• “I’ll protect you.”
• “I’ll make you successful.”

Grooming children for sex trafficking consists of convincing someone to send a risky picture and then using it to extort them.

“They will use fear of repercussions as a way to compel the youth, coerce the youth [to move them from a monitored page to a less monitored page]… by saying, ‘You don’t want your parents to find out what we’re talking about,’” said one expert.

Technology offers traffickers ease in advertising multiple victims at one time.

The study lists several advertising and sales sites browsed by “johns/sugar daddies,” such as Cityxguide, Skipthegames, Bedpage, Seekingarrangement.com and sugar-babies.com. Williamson said Bedpage is a spin-off of Backpage, which was the focus of a 2017 documentary called “I Am Jane Doe” about the fight against child sex trafficking online.

“Even though Backpage has been shut down, other sites are being created and gaining traction,” Williamson said. “The landscape is rapidly changing.”

Parents form the front line in the fight to protect their child against traffickers by monitoring or blocking questionable activity.

“Parents who are educated can wage a worthy defense against potential recruitment and recruitment of their youth online,” Williamson said. “Parents who work to build healthy, open and communicative relationships are more likely to have youth that share information about where they go and who they talk to online.”

The study lists several resources for parents and children, including:

• Internetsafety101.org/internetpredators
• Connectsafely.org/a-parents-guide-to-cybersecurity
• CDC.gov/healthyyouth/protective/pdf/parental_monitoring_factsheet.pdf
• Netnanny.com
• Safekids.com/quiz

For additional resources on ways to prevent human trafficking, visit the Ohio Attorney General’s website at ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Publications-Files/Publications-for-Victims/Human-Trafficking-An-Online-Threat.

“Rocky’s Big Show” is the theme of The University of Toledo’s Homecoming this year. The week of festivities kicks off today (Monday, Oct. 1) with Carnival on the Mall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Centennial Mall.

“I love the carnival/circus theme because it provides such an upbeat atmosphere. There are games, music and, of course, food,” said Lily Kilpatrick, Homecoming director and third-year student in the Judith Herb College of Education. “You can never go wrong with cotton candy and popcorn.”

Ever the showman, Rocky will share the spotlight with Rocksy and Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, who will be the grand marshal at the Edward C. and Helen G. Schmakel Homecoming Parade, which begins 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 at West Bancroft Street and Campus Road.

“I am thrilled and honored that I was selected as grand marshal,” Kapszukiewicz said. “The University and the city share the same name, we are part of the same team, and everyone in Toledo is a Rocket. UT is an amazing institution, and I can’t wait to welcome back the scores of alumni.”

“Homecoming is so special because it is a time for everyone to come back and to see how the University has changed and become better,” Kilpatrick said. “And this year is extraordinarily special since we are playing our biggest rivals for the Homecoming game.”

The showdown between the Toledo Rockets and Bowling Green Falcons will take place at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 in the Glass Bowl.

“I hope the campus, alumni and community takes Homecoming as an opportunity to come together as the Rocket family to celebrate our successes,” Kilpatrick said.

Homecoming activities include:

Monday, Oct. 1

• Carnival on the Mall, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Centennial Mall. Stop by for games, prizes and food.
• Ottawa and a Show, 8 to 10 p.m., the Flatlands. Kick back in the grass and watch “The Greatest Showman.” If it rains, the movie will be shown in the Thompson Student Union Auditorium.

Tuesday, Oct. 2

• Eat the Street, 6 to 8 p.m., Residence Drive, which is located between Presidents Hall and Ottawa House. Toledo favorites will be featured as area food trucks pull up for this event, which is in its second year.

Wednesday, Oct. 3

• Big Top Bonanza, 7 to 9 p.m., Thompson Student Union Ingman Room. Homecoming candidates will compete in lip-sync battles. Food and games will be provided by the Black Student Union and the Latino Student Union.

Thursday, Oct. 4

• Ringmaster Rocky’s Pep Rally, 12:30 p.m., Centennial Mall. Psych up for the UT-BG football game.
• Glee Club Performance, 5 p.m., Thompson Student Union Steps. UT Glee Club members will sing and dance their way across campus.
• National Pan-Hellenic Council Talent Show, 8 p.m., Doermann Theatre.

Friday, Oct. 5

• Bridge, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Horton International House Dining Hall. Volunteer to make sandwiches for those in need in the community.
• Homecoming Gala, 6 p.m., Thompson Student Union Auditorium. The Alumni Association will present this year’s Gold T, Blue T and Edward H. Schmidt Young Alum Award, and college and affiliate award winners will be honored. Tickets are $30 per person, $10 for children. For more information or to make a reservation, contact the UT Alumni Office at 419.530.ALUM (2586) or shirley.grzecki@utoledo.edu.
• Downtown Pep Rally. The Rocket Marching Band will take it to the streets and play at downtown restaurants and pubs, beginning with Pizza Papalis about 9:15 p.m., Ye Olde Durty Bird at 9:30 p.m., Cock n’ Bull about 9:45 p.m., and The Blarney around 10 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 6

• The Edward C. and Helen G. Schmakel Homecoming Parade, 10:30 a.m. Sponsored by Blue Key National Honor Society, the parade will begin at West Bancroft Street and Campus Road and go east to Cheltenham Road to Christie Street to Middlesex Drive and back to West Bancroft Street.
• Alumni Tailgate, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., William and Carol Koester Alumni Pavilion. Stop by for free hot dogs, chips and non-alcoholic beverages. There will be a cash bar for those 21 and older with proper ID, and Five O’Clock Rush will play live music.
• Toledo Rockets vs. Bowling Green Falcons Homecoming Game, 3:30 p.m., Glass Bowl. Cheer on the Rockets and see the crowning of the Homecoming king and queen. Tickets range from $38 to $73; $17.50 and $21.50 for children 12 and younger; half off for UT faculty and staff; and free for UT students with IDs. For tickets, go to utrockets.com or call 419.530.GOLD (4653).

For more information, go to utoledo.edu/homecoming.