Campus Voices, University of Delaware

As Campus Voices' last installment of the 50th Anniversary Interviews, Chuck Tarver sits down with Richard Gordon to reflect on his long tenure with WVUD. The two discuss past stories and events of the station, how the station has changed over the years, and the unique combination of our student and community volunteer station. Chuck reminisces on his favorite song to play and the student dynamic of the station.

This week on Campus Voices, we welcome University of Delaware alumnus Shawn Garvin. He chatted with us about his experience as a blue hen, including ice hockey and favorite professors, and his role in Governor Carney's cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Steve Kramarck discusses with Secretary Garvin how he got his start in environmental regulation which led him to the EPA.

The much discussed mid-term election is almost here but some may wonder how to get accurate information on candidates. College students can also face unique voting challenges. This week Campus Voices talked with Kim Wells of the New Castle County League of Women Voters about their Vote411 website, and UD student Gillian Williams who is involved with the "Make It Count" campaign of the Biden Institute.

Wells describes the kinds of information available on the Vote 411 website and walks host Rich Campbell through some of the site's local voting information on a laptop. She relates how voters can see and compare candidates in their specific elections and print out a sample ballot, and the process of asking questions of and getting answers from candidates.

Williams discusses the challenges faced by college students in voting such as transportation and having enough time to vote. She shares her passion for getting students involved through the "Make It Count" campaign of UD's Biden Institute, which has a mission to "increase voter registration and non-partisan civic engagement across the University of Delaware campus and the state of Delaware."

We also talk about the good and bad points of social media relating to politics, and various attitudes that keep people from participating in elections, like "my vote doesn't count" and "voting for a third party is a wasted vote."

WVUD celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first broadcast on October 21. Congratulations to us! This week on Campus Voices we use this occasion to speak with four long-time WVUD community members: Steven Leech, Carl Goldstein, Gloria James, and Steve Klinge. They discuss how they got involved with WVUD and share memories about the station's evolution over the years. (Gloria relates a particularly surprising anecdote about her listeners.) They also talk about WVUD's connections to the communities it serves, what keeps them coming back to WVUD as volunteers, and what makes WVUD great.

This we week speak with Alex Johnston, curator of the exhibit currently on display (through Dec. 14, 2018) in the Special Collections Gallery in Morris Library. Things Aren't What They Seem: Forgeries and Deceptions from the University of Delaware Collections gathers deceptive works of art and publishing spanning over five centuries. Alex presents the fascinating stories behind several of the items on display and how the library came to hold entire collections of forged materials. The exhibit runs through December 14, 2018; the Special Collections Gallery hours are 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, plus extended hours on Wednesdays (9am-8pm).

This week on Campus Voices, we discussed the University's new initiative to involve students in football games: The Barn. The Barn is a place for students to tailgate before home football games with food, friends, music, and beer. Steve Kramarck talks to the Dean of Students about the first year of The Barn, its goals and how the idea came to be reality.

For all of 2018, the University of Delaware is celebrating 50 years of radio. As the first installment of our 50th anniversary shows, Campus Voices welcomed Steve Kramarck and Dave Mackenzie. We asked them to share about their involvement at WVUD as students and as management, they discussed the changes in the University over their years here and specifically the changes that radio has seen, including improved equipment, and our guests reminisced on the unique combination of student involvement and community volunteers that makes WVUD special.

This week we speak with Campus Voices founder and frequent host Richard Gordon on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Delaware. Richard reminisces about his 35-year career in UD's IT department, his teaching career, the changes he's seen at UD and in the Newark community, and his late-blooming interest in radio. He gives us insight into his path to becoming a major contributor to WVUD's programming, the mechanics of producing a Campus Voices show, and the students he has mentored along the way. While he has retired from Campus Voices and moved to Pittsburgh, his involvement with radio continues there.

What is a banned or challenged book? Professor April Kendra of the English department joins Library, Museums and Press staff members Kathy Cephas, Amanda McCollom, and host Rich Campbell on this week's "Campus Voices" to discuss this and other related topics ahead of the "Banned Book Read-Out" on campus next week. During the Read-Out, university community members will have the opportunity to read excerpts from a banned or challenged book.

Campus Voices welcomed back University of Delaware Professor Lori Pollock this week. Pollock was featured on the show in 2012, and joined us again to discuss computer sciences. Richard Gordon and Lori Pollock talk about the advancements in computers since her last visit to the station, including coding practices, educating young computer scientists and the role of women in her field.

As a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Lori Pollock teaches software and programming classes. She is also involved in the university's study abroad programs, by leading trips to New Zealand for CISC related courses. A main initiative for Pollock to is to improve diversity in her field and encourage women and minorities to join the world of computers.

Associate Professor Adam Rome, Unidel Helen Gouldner Chair in Environment, joined us to preview the films and format of the first annual Lights, Camera, EARTH! film festival at UD. In addition to describing the 11 films that will be shown Feb. 21-23 in Mitchell Hall, Prof. Rome talked about UD's new program in Environmental Humanities.

We were joined today by four middle schoolers who are actively campaigning to get Delawareans to recycle their "organic trash" into compost; even signing up over 150 households in one of their pilot programs.

Asst. Profs. Jenni Buckley and Heather Doty, Mechanical Engineering, and Melissa Jurist, program director for UD K-12 engineering, talked about some of the reasons so few women join engineering and other STEM disciplines. We had such an interesting discussion, that we expect them to come back again this spring.

Bob Gonyea, keynote speaker at the 2014 UD Winter Faculty Institute, joined us for a preview of some of the themes he'll raise on campus on January 9. His data shows that retaining and engaging university students is the business of faculty AND support staff, and that certain kinds of learning engage students more readily.

Babtunde Ogunnaike, Dean of UD's College of Engineering, and Scott Grzenda, coach of UD's women's soccer team, headline a group of UD soccer experts as we dissect the draw for the summer 2014 FIFA World Cup. None of us picked Spain!

WVUD conducted a bilingual interview with Mario Vargas Llosa when he visited campus on October 31, 2013. Hear him talk about the creative process, the Internet, and politics. A very powerful interview.

Sociology prof Victor Perez talked with us about how the concept of Cancer Clusters is used as a rhetorical device and about how social sciences can inform the physical sciences in putting together a complete picture of environmental phenomena.

Most of the time, Professor Joel Best talked about the student loan mess, but he is the world's expert on certain contemporary legends: poisoned Halloween candy and middle-schooler's alleged sex games. It's a fascinating interview!

Karl Hassler joined us for a conversation during National Cyber Security Awareness Month abouth the importance of having a safe password, being alert to social engineering cons, and why information security is everyone's business.

Tunde Ogunnaike, dean of the University of Delaware's College of Engineering spoke with us about the inter-disciplinary nature of the current curriculum, UD's new ISE lab, and a lot of the exciting programs at the University.

Dan Leathers, UD Geography professor and the Delaware State Climatologist, spoke with us about a variety of weather issues--including how climate change is affecting Delaware.

Janis Tomlinson and Julie McGee visited with us about the current exhibitions in the UD Museums in Old College, Mechanical, and Penny Halls: Goya, contemporary African American art, 19th Century Japanese prints, minerals and gems.

Jennifer Ewald talks about healthy relationships, "intimate partner violence," and the importance of communication in a healthy relationship.

Meredith Chapman talks about twitter, Facebook and other social media--at UD and in the new media world--and she talks about UD's program in Social Media Strategy and UD's student Social Media Ambassadors sitting in the "tweet seats" at UD events.

Three UD employees whose alter-egos promote, referee, or wrestle for Right Coast Pro talk about the history and culture of professional wrestling, some of the community activities that Right Coast Pro participates in to support the Newark, DE, community, and everything you want to know about local professional wrestling. Of course, mayhem nearly erupts.

Prior to his appearance at the University of Delaware Summer Faculty Institute, Phil Hill chatted with us about MOOCs. In one of the best interviews we've heard or read on the subject, Hill separates the hype from the reality, giving a very balanced view of the place for this relatively new tool in education today.

Each year, the UD Opera Theatre puts on two major productions, including a full opera in the spring. The May 2013 presentation is Verdi's Falstaff. This is a fun episode of Campus Voices--hear UD students sing and talk about what they're learning by putting on a show like this one.

Ag Day lets the local community learn about all the activities at UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It happens on the last Saturday in April every year. This broadcast emphasizes that, as much fun as Ag Day is, it also provides a snapshot of the College's and Cooperative Extension's programs. And we went behind the scenes at UDairy, too!

Prior to her April 24, 2013, appearance at UD in the Center for Political Communication's Global Agenda program series, Rebecca MacKinnon talked with us about many of the issues that she cares about deeply: Internet governance, de-centralized citizen journalists, attempts to control or censor the 'Net, attempts to keep it free. Her main point: If individuals don't speak up when we don't like what's happening to the 'Net, then we may find the Internet a more confined place.

Anu Sivaraman uses twitter, learning management systems, blogs, and other technology tools to keep her students engaged with the material in her marketing classes. She has found that students are more enthusiastic and retain material from their twitter conversations with her!

The Special Collections Exhibitions in the University of Delaware's Morris Library present fascinating snapshots of the UD Library's holdings. Rebecca and Maureen discussed a lot of the exhibitions, focusing on two current when they appeared on April 4, 2013: In Focus--The history of photography and The World of the Graphic Novel. We also played excerpts of an interview with Deavon Church, the curator for the graphic novel exhibition.

Deavon curated the UD Library's World of the Graphic Novel exhibition. This is the complete 13 minute interview we conducted with Devon as part of our April 4, 2013, broadcast about the Library's Special Collections Exhibitions.

Susan Strasser looks at the economics of domestic life in America through the lens of the kitchen window--from both sides! Strasser's wide-raning work connects lot of apparently divergent little things into a related picture of American consumer culture.

Four students came into the studio and shared some of their experiences as members of UD's Engineering without Borders chapter. The students completed two projects recently: a bridge in Guatemala, a water system in Cameroon.

Benjamin Fleury-Steiner talked about his book Disposable Heroes: The Betrayal of African American Veterans. As a military veteran himself, he knows the difficulty some veterans have integrating back into society after a tour of combat duty.

Debbie Delaney talks about European settlers bringing honeybees over from Europe, the career of a honeybee (which changes jobs every couple of weeks), the other kinds of bees in North America, Africanized bees, some of her extension projects, and Dare to Bee Honey. Who knew how important bumblebees are to Delaware's watermelon crop.

Rob Steiner chatted with us about several of the trends in blended and online education prior to his coming to campus to address the UD Winter Faculty Institute.

Judi Provencal has been fascinated by the night sky since she was a little girl. She shares some of her excitement with us, in particular talking about the Whole Earth Telescope project.

Two fellows from UD's Center for Political Communication, Professors Wilson (Political Science and International Relations) and Hoffman (Communication), discuss the November 2012 election results. Topics include micro-targeting, media strategies, and how different groups voted.

FLLT prof Saad Maura talks about her use of popular music to reinforce Spanish grammar, Mario Vargas Llosa's Nov. 13 and 14 visit to UD, her research in transatlantic cultures, and even lo real maravilloso americano.

Communication professors Lindsay Hoffman and Danna Young talk about topics such as humorists' (like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert) place in the political landscape, the importance of voters watching the debates and actual candidate speeches, twitter and other new media, and campaigns' battle to tell their own version of the truth.

Philosophy professors Tom Powers and Mark Greene
are two of the leaders of UD's Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (SEPP). They talk about their own research and teaching and about SEPP activities that encourage researchers and businesses to examine the ethical implications of using new technology.

Alex Brown has had a varied career in academia, at UD and at the Wharton School, and in the field of hose racing. His interview gives insight into the "early days" of the Web and into how he has used social media in some of his horse-related activities.

Jon Cox graduated from UD with a BS in entomology; entomology led him to photography; and photography has taken him around the world. Cox talks about a wide range of subjects including study abroad trips, Tanzania, and the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Mark Rieger became dean of UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in August 2012. He shares his vision for the College and agriculture in general: teaching, research, cooperative extension and outreach, undergraduate education, stewardship of natural resources.

Philosophy Professor Alan Fox shares some of his teaching philosophy; responds to some questions from our student intern on teaching online courses; and talks about critical thinking and tolerance.

Computer and Information Sciences Professor Lori Pollock talks about Computer Science curriculum in US high schools, the one laptop per child initiative, and service projects she and her students have done in Chester, PA, and northern Haiti.

Short promo spot for Campus Voices