In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks and deepening Syrian refugee crisis, Islamic studies, international law, immigration and refugee law, and political science scholars at The University of Toledo are teaming up to moderate a teach-in to help the campus and Toledo community examine what is happening and how it hits home.

Benjamin G. Davis, a law professor at the UT College of Law and member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security, just returned from Paris and Hungary with first-hand knowledge of the evolving situation.

Davis will lead the teach-in ‪at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 in the UT Law Center Room 1013, along with Ovamir Anjum, the Imam Khattab Chair of Islamic Studies; Joel Voss, assistant professor of political science who has lived in France; and Shelley Cavalieri, associate professor of Law.

“Having been on the ground this past week in Paris and 10 miles from the Serbian border in Hungary where the Syrian refugees are, the hope is to use that experience to help the university and community understand these events over the last ten days and have their questions answered,” Davis said.

The teach-in is sponsored by the International Law Society.

It is free and open to the public.

“It’s an educational opportunity, but it’s also an opportunity to discuss the issues in an informal manner,” Voss said.

“This is a political fight,” Anjum said. “ISIS coordinated the attacks because it doesn’t want refugees to find refuge in the West.”

“We will be providing answers to questions and correcting misinformation in the public sphere regarding refugee resettlement, international law, and terrorism,” Cavalieri said.

Media Coverage
WTOL 11 (Nov. 18, 2015)
The Blade (Nov. 18, 2015)
The Blade (Nov. 20, 2015)

A religious studies professor at The University of Toledo will address the question “Is ISIS Islamic?” at a previously scheduled talk made more noteworthy after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.

Associate Professor Ovamir Anjum, the Imam Khattab Chair of Islamic Studies, will give the talk 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17 in the UT Center for Religious Understanding in University Hall Room 4700.

“ISIS is not Islamic. ISIS is Saddam Hussein reaching out of his grave for revenge,” he said. “Modern scholars across the globe, both Sunni and Shia, have condemned ISIS as modern-day Kharijites—a heretical group known for its violence.”

The talk, which is free and open to the public, is part of a fall series called “Windows on Contemporary Islamic Issues.”

After the attacks on Paris, Anjum says it is crucial not to play into the hands of terrorists.

“This is a political fight,” Anjum said. “ISIS coordinated the attacks because it doesn’t want refugees to find refuge in the West.”

UT’s Center for Religious Understanding promotes a deeper understanding of religion on campus and in greater Toledo, the nation and the world.

Media Coverage
WTOL 11 (Nov. 16, 2015)
WTOL 11 and 13 ABC (Nov. 17, 2015)
WTOL 11 (Nov. 18, 2015)
The Blade (Nov. 18, 2015)

Calling a safe, supportive and inviting environment for all students, faculty, staff and guests one of The University of Toledo’s most important values and responsibilities, UT President Sharon L. Gaber announced Nov. 13 a new campus leader to continue and elevate the institution’s ongoing, proactive commitment to diversity.

“As ongoing events at the University of Missouri and other colleges across the country have demonstrated, institutions of higher education still have work to do to live up to our ideals,” Gaber wrote in a message sent to the UT community.

McKether

“I’m pleased to share with you that Dr. Willie McKether, associate dean in the College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences, has agreed to take on a special assignment to help advance diversity throughout our institution,” she wrote.

“As special assistant to the president for diversity, Dr. McKether will be applying his diversity and academic expertise to work with faculty, staff and students to develop a University of Toledo diversity plan. Dr. McKether will build on the work provided by the Office of Equity, Diversity and Community Engagement.”

Gaber also pointed to the Division of Student Affairs, where Dr. Kaye Patten Wallace is implementing changes to strengthen diversity resources for students.

The Office of Multicultural Student Services is in the process of being restructured to identify graduate students who will provide programming, academic support and mentoring for specific student groups, including African-American, Latino, LGBTQA and international student populations. Further, the office is being elevated to the assistant dean level and a new leader will be hired soon.

“The University of Toledo’s commitment to diversity must be infused into every action we take,” Gaber wrote. “It is represented in our words as well as our actions and decisions at all levels of the University. From the faculty, staff and students we recruit to ensuring our retention and graduation rates demonstrate equal opportunities of success for all, we must come together as an institution to continue to move this critical priority forward.

“I ask for your help, input and steadfast commitment to equality as we proactively work to strengthen diversity at UT.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (Nov. 14, 2015)
La Prensa (Nov. 17, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (Nov. 18, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (Nov. 18, 2015)
TV Newsroom (Nov. 22, 2015)

A University of Toledo faculty member is attending today’s White House Summit on Next Generation Schools to highlight her STEM education project.

Dr. Beth Schlemper, associate professor in the UT Department of Geography and Planning, was among the students, educators, philanthropists and entrepreneurs invited to Washington for the first-ever event to share their efforts to reinvent the high school experience to better empower students to seize opportunities in today’s economy, and prepare students for success in college and career.

Schlemper

The UT project aims to develop a curricular model that provides an accessible way of introducing geospatial thinking to students while providing them with the skills and motivation to pursue STEM careers.

Schlemper is engaging underrepresented students in real-world issues in the context of their own neighborhoods through the use of geospatial technologies and skills. Students are gaining knowledge and tools for enhancing their communities, as well as exposure to career opportunities in high-growth STEM sectors.

Today’s summit is part of President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union push for a national effort to create more Next Generation High Schools — schools that incorporate key elements of redesign, including more personalized and active learning, access to real-world and hands-on learning such as making experiences, deeper ties to post-secondary institutions, and a focus on expanding STEM opportunities for girls and other groups of students who are underrepresented in these high-growth, well-paying fields.

Schlemper’s invitation to the White House builds upon recent success of the UT Department of Geography and Planning’s efforts to boost STEM education. The University announced last month a UT faculty member is leading a $10 million NASA project to develop a new K-12 science curriculum that relies on hands-on experiments to engage students.

Click here for additional information on the White House Summit on Next Generation High Schools.

The nationally recognized Interfaith Amigos will promote interfaith acceptance when they visit Toledo this weekend.

Known for their blend of spiritual wisdom and humor, Imam Jamal Rahman, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Rabbi Ted Falcon started their work together after 9/11. The group travels around the country promoting authentic conversation between faith traditions, sharing why they believe interfaith dialogue is so critically important and how each of their Abrahamic traditions support and inhibit deeper dialogue.

The visit by the Interfaith Amigos offers a unique format for the annual Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dialogue hosted by The University of Toledo Center for Religious Understanding.

Each year for the past 13 years, members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths on campus and in the community gather to talk about a topic of mutual interest. Normally the faiths take turns on a keynote speaker, but this year the Center for Religious Understanding was offered the opportunity to partner with Sylvania United Church of Christ to bring the Interfaith Amigos to Toledo instead.

“One reason to come to this event is to get to hear firsthand and ask questions of a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim who are great speakers and at the same time great leaders in their tradition,” said Dr. Jeanine Diller, director of UT’s Center for Religious Understanding. “Religions that aren’t your own can seem really abstract and odd; it can help a lot to talk with someone from them, and it’s wonderful to talk with someone who knows a lot about them.”

The group will offer several public presentations throughout the weekend:

• Saturday, Nov. 7 — “Promises and Problems of Interfaith Dialogue” at 4 p.m. at the Sylvania United Church of Christ, located at 7240 Erie St., Sylvania. The lecture and question-and-answer session cost $15; students with valid ID get in free.

• Sunday, Nov. 8 —“The Golden Rule and Compassion in Three Faiths” at 8:30 and 10:40 a.m. at the Sylvania United Church of Christ. Join the congregation in a worship service with the Interfaith Amigos and hear them give a shared sermon.

• Sunday, Nov. 8 — “An Informal Conversation With the Interfaith Amigos” at 9:20 a.m. at the Sylvania United Church of Christ.

• Sunday, Nov. 8 — “The Practice of Effective Interfaith Dialogue, an Experiential Workshop” at 2 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel on UT’s Health Science Campus. This event will include a discussion after the lecture portion.

“It’s hard to imagine a better team to instantiate the dialogue between these traditions that our event is all about, and I know our team is looking forward to learning as much as we can from them about interfaith dialogue while they are with us,” Diller said.

The Interfaith Amigos’ visit is sponsored by the Jewish Christian Muslim Dialogue Committee at The University of Toledo’s Center for Religious Understanding, the Childester Lecture Series at Sylvania United Church of Christ, the Toledo Community Foundation and the Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio.

Click here for more information on the Interfaith Amigos events.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Nov. 7, 2015)

Bruce Holsinger, a historical fiction, crime and mystery novelist and literary scholar, will speak during “An Evening of Historical Fiction” Friday, Oct. 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Libbey Hall on The University of Toledo’s Main Campus.

“This is a great way to be introduced to a new author you might not have heard about before,” said Dr. Christina M. Fitzgerald, UT professor of English and director of the Humanities Institute.

Holsinger’s new novel, The Invention of Fire, has received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal and was named an Amazon Book of the Month in April. It is set in medieval London when gun violence in the Western world begins to emerge in society for the first time and follows John Gower, the protagonist, as he investigates the killings caused by a new and terrifying weapon called “handgonnes.”

“Even though he writes about the past, the significance of ‘handgonnes’ to the plot of his current book is very timely,” Fitzgerald said. “Sometimes the study of the past or the creative presentation of it can speak to our own day and age in prescient and important ways, and I think that’s true of Holsinger’s latest book.”

Holsinger teaches courses on medieval and modern literature at the University of Virginia, and has taught historical fiction in a massive open online course called Plagues, Witches and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction.

The free, public event will feature a question-and-answer session moderated by Dr. Ben Stroud, UT assistant professor of English, with a book signing and reception.

A University of Toledo researcher is leading a $10 million NASA project that will transform the way science is taught to students throughout the country.

Kevin Czajkowski, UT geography professor, is spearheading the development of new K-12 science curriculum that relies on hands-on experiments to build knowledge using the resources of NASA and education partners across the country.

“Science is much more fun when you do science,” Czajkowski said. “It is not enough to conduct preplanned experiments in the classroom or a lab and expect the students to follow the steps and get excited about scientific discovery. We need to get more students outside taking real observations in the world around them so they can use the data that they collected themselves to answer questions and solve problems.” 

UT’s project is one of 27 funded with a $42 million commitment from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to engage learners of all ages in NASA science education programs and activities.

“NASA seeks to innovate, explore, discover and inspire, and these selections build upon a legacy of excellence from our science education community,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. “STEM education is the enabler of future space exploration and these awards, together with efforts in NASA’s Office of Education and other partners, will advance STEM efforts in this country, improve U.S. scientific literacy and help to inspire our nation.”

“This project is a perfect example of the innovative research underway at The University of Toledo that advances knowledge in ways that have profound impacts on our world,” UT President Sharon L. Gaber said. “Dr. Czajkowski’s work will inspire students across the country to make scientific discoveries in the world around them. These real-life experiences will spark the imagination of the next generation of scientists, engineers and doctors.”

The project, called “MISSION EARTH: Fusing GLOBE with NASA Assets to Build Systemic Innovation In STEM Education,” will leverage the resources of both NASA and Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), which is an international science and education program that connects students, teachers, scientists and citizens from different parts of the world to conduct real, hands-on science about their local environment and put in a global perspective. 

The idea is to use GLOBE resources to get students out taking observations that they can then use with NASA satellite imagery to answer their own research questions, Czajkowski said.

“It is important for students to have the opportunity for trial and error, to do outside measurements in an environment where they cannot control all the variables but need to account for them in their data,” he said. “It’s about changing the curriculum for the next generation of science standards.”

For example, as a GLOBE scientist Czajkowski worked with an educator in the Dominican Republic whose class embarked on a surface temperature project using an infrared thermometer to observe temperatures around the school and compare those from a grassy field to those in a parking lot. The paved surfaces were more than 42 degrees hotter than the grass, which posed a problem for the playground on an artificial surface that absorbs and stores heat. The experiment continued with the class looking for ways to reduce the heat and that lead the school to paint the playground surface green, which was successful in reducing the heat some 37 degrees.

Part of the appeal of the MISSION EARTH project, Czajkowski said, is the diversity of the partners with expertise in different levels of education. Along with UT that has expertise in middle school project-based science, the partners include: WestEd, a research and service agency in San Francisco with expertise in high school career readiness; Boston University that has expertise in elementary and college engineering practices; and Tennessee State University will provide its expertise in college service learning. University of California, Berkeley, NASA Langley Research Center and the technology company Raytheon also are partners on the project.

Together they will build a K-12 progression of activities that build upon each other as the students complete each grade. The learning materials will be provided, and teachers will be supported and engaged throughout the program.

MISSION EARTH also will connect students with GLOBE’s new citizen science initiative and provide service experiences for undergraduate students studying to be teachers.

Working with Czajkowski at UT will be Glenn Lipscomb, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, and Mark Templin, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Other partners on the project are Peter Garik, Bruce Anderson and Magaly Koch of Boston University; Svetlana Darche and Matt Silberglitt of WestEd; Ronald Cohen of UC Berkeley; David Padgett of Tennessee State; Jessica Taylor of NASA Langley Research Center; and David Overoye of Raytheon.

Click here for NASA news release and video featuring astronaut John Grunsfeld.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 27, 2015)
NBC 24 (Oct. 27, 2015)
13 ABC, WTOL 11 and NBC 24 (Oct. 28, 2015)
The Sacramento Bee (Oct. 28, 2015)
Daily Journal (Oct. 28, 2015)
News-Herald (Oct. 28, 2015)
WKSU (Oct. 28, 2015)
Sidney Daily News (Oct. 28, 2015)
The Washington Times (Oct. 28, 2015)
Independent Collegian (Nov. 11, 2015)

A University of Toledo researcher will transform the way science is taught to students throughout the country with a $10 million grant from NASA.

Kevin Czajkowski, UT geography professor, is leading the development of new K-12 science curriculum that will have students do hands-on observations and projects utilizing NASA satellite imagery and discoveries.

The project, called “MISSION EARTH: Fusing GLOBE with NASA Assets to Build Systemic Innovation In STEM Education,” is one of 27 funded with a total of $42 million through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to engage learners of all ages in NASA science education programs and activities.

Czajkowski will be joined by UT President Sharon L. Gaber for an announcement of the research project at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27 next to the Ottawa River on Main Campus behind the Student Union (click this link for map). UT students will demonstrate the hands-on science activities proposed, including water samples from the river, soil samples and surface temperatures using an infrared thermometer.

In the event of inclement weather, the news conference will take place in Student Union Room 2582.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 27, 2015)
NBC 24 (Oct. 27, 2015)
13 ABC, WTOL 11 and NBC 24 (Oct. 28, 2015)
The Sacramento Bee (Oct. 28, 2015)
Daily Journal (Oct. 28, 2015)
News-Herald (Oct. 28, 2015)
WKSU (Oct. 28, 2015)
Sidney Daily News (Oct. 28, 2015)
The Washington Times (Oct. 28, 2015)
Independent Collegian (Nov. 11, 2015)

When trying to inspire students to succeed after college, who better to reach out to than those at the top.

“Straight Outta College: Exclusive Interviews with the Presidents” will spotlight three presidents: Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and former president of Spelman College; Dr. Sharon L. Gaber, president of The University of Toledo; and Dr. Brian Kennedy, president, director and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art.

The free, public event will be held Friday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m. in the Driscoll Alumni Center Auditorium.

Leaders will start by giving a brief history of their journey to their respective presidencies. Then the floor will be opened to students to ask questions about the panelists’ roads to success.

“All of our guests are very much accomplished, and we want students to walk away with the feeling that ‘I, too, can achieve just as these individuals have,’” said Dr. Willie McKether, associate professor of anthropology and associate dean in the UT College of Languages, Literature and Sciences.

Given the backgrounds of each speaker, McKether anticipates the conversations to surround strategies for student success, retention, graduation, the role of art in community building and engagement, and the importance of museums in the community.

Anyone interested in becoming an effective leader in an organization is encouraged to attend, said McKether, who also is president of Brothers on the Rise, a program that helps UT males, especially African-American and Latino, make the transition from high school to college.

In addition to Brothers on the Rise, the Straight Outta College event is presented by the UT College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences; the departments of Sociology and Anthropology, Women’s and Gender Studies, Africana Studies, and Art; Alpha Phi Boule, which is the local chapter of the service-based professional fraternity Sigma Pi Phi; the Association of Black Faculty and Staff; and the Toledo Museum of Art.

The leader of the Catholic Church has made waves in his first two and half years in the papal office, tackling a number of hot-button issues. Arguably the biggest: climate change.

Dr. Peter Feldmeier, the Thomas and Margaret Murray and James J. Bacik Catholic Studies Professor at The University of Toledo, will present, “The Pope Goes Green: Francis and Climate Change,” at the annual Murray Bacik Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7 in the Libbey Hall Dining Room. A reception will follow the free, public event.

Feldmeier

“Francis addresses a number of what he sees as interrelated issues, including pollution, the degradation of the planet, the culture of consumerism, poverty, marginalization of those most vulnerable to climate change, and climate change itself,” Feldmeier said. “He sees them all as a piece. He also sees far too little action, even as these issues, particularly climate change, demand immediate attention.

“The damage that climate change will bring in this and the next century is already decisive, but he believes that the human race can still come together to limit that future damage. Francis also believes that the created world and the sentient beings in it exist on their own right and not merely as objects of human utility. His vision is an inclusive one where love of God, love of neighbor, and love of the created world all mutually implicate each other.”

Pope Francis believes this is the most imperative moral concern of the day, which is why Feldmeier said this is an important topic to discuss. Yet many people frown upon the pope speaking out about such issues, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, who recently boycotted the pope’s address in Congress because of his views on climate change.

Feldmeier response to the critics: “Some leaders, particularly Republican leaders, who resist either accepting climate change or show no interest in addressing it have criticized Francis for venturing into realms he has no right to proclaim expertise. But I think this is a false move. Climate change has been known for decades and has international consensus among scientists. One cannot legitimately reject it.”

“And given that climate change demands an aggressive response, it is morally necessary to do so,” Feldmeier said. “Human lives are at stake, the lives of thousands of species who will become extinct because of human-created climate change, and the future of our civilization and planet is at stake. If the pope is a moral leader, what greater moral imperative is there?”

For more information on the lecture, contact the Center for Religious Understanding at 419.530.6187 or visit utoledo.edu/llss/philosophy/cfru/events.