Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events Director: David M. Neal It could be said that the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events evolved from one of the most devastating natural disasters in human history. In May 2005, three OSU professors and two graduate students went to Chennai, India, to learn how government officials and citizens coped with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed nearly 300,000 lives in more than 13 countries. A few months later, the Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events was born at OSU. And for more than three years, the researchers have been searching for answers and solutions to aid victims of catastrophic events here and across the world. OSU joins a number of U.S. colleges that are using the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters to teach students about geography and emergency management, among other things. The center’s ongoing mission is to suggest practical recommendations for dealing with and coordinating large-scale disasters on international, national, regional, state and local levels. “We have discovered that flexibility is the most crucial component in dealing with such disasters,” says David M. Neal, the center’s director and a political science professor. In 2005, political science professor Brenda Philips and geography professor Thomas Wikle examined shelters for Hurricane Katrina victims. Gary Webb, an associate professor of sociology, is a co-principal investigator for a study that is examining first responder creativity in the wake of the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombing disasters. Philips also is leading a team that is trying to find ways to help people with multiple special needs so they can be protected in disasters. “The center has a multidisciplinary focus, which engages many of the departments in arts and sciences, but also others across OSU,” Neal says. It draws participation from political science, sociology, geography, psychology, computer sciences and art, as well as from education, engineering, business and the OSU administration. But the real value of these studies is the knowledge gained by graduate students. “Large research institutions like OSU focus on graduate education,” says Neal. “So as professors, we realize that, as difficult as it may be, our graduate students learn an incredible amount at these disaster sites. “Our students will be the teachers of the next generations.” Cimarron Review Director: Edward P. Walkiewicz The Cimarron Review has been identified by Esquire as “one of America’s literary roots” and has been nurturing creative writing since 1967. “The Cimarron Review is unquestionably an OSU product,” says Edward P. Walkiewicz, English professor and director of literature. The senior editors all are current or former members of the faculty. The managing editors and editorial assistants all are graduate students in creative writing. Every issue is edited and designed on the Stillwater campus. The journal publishes the best poetry, fiction and non-fiction it can obtain, he says. The peer-reviewed Cimarron Review accepts manuscripts based on submission guidelines at http://cimarronreivew.okstate.edu. Young writers can make a name for themselves, even become famous, after being published in the Cimarron, says Walkiewicz. “It has also made a big impact on people such as Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler, whom Cimarron published before his career blossomed.” Cimarron also published Jose’ Saramago’s work shortly before he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Doel Reed Center Founding Director: Sallie M. McCorkle In 2006, the Doel Reed Center in Taos, N.M., was created to establish a national/ international artist and scholar residency program along with a student internship program and a faculty residency program. The center is named after Doel Reed, considered a master of the aquatint — a type of etching that looks almost like a watercolor painting. His relationship with OSU began in 1924 when he joined the staff at Oklahoma A&M as a professor in the art department, a department that did not yet exist until that time. During his 35-year tenure with the university, Reed established and headed the art department. After retiring in 1959, Reed and his wife retreated to their second home in Taos, N.M. He died in 1985, but his legacy lives on. Reed’s daughter, Martha, bequeathed OSU the family’s property in Taos, which includes a one-and-a-half-acre lot with two century-old adobe homes and Reed’s personal artist studio. Part of OSU’s mission is to facilitate restoration of the property. The center benefits many. “When people first start looking at Reed’s property, they may see it as only an opportunity to involve students,” says Kent Young, Doel Reed Center for the Arts campaign chair. “But it has a much broader aspect to it in that it involves artists, writers, architectural students and botanists. It has a multidisciplinary use that reaches far beyond art students.” Art professor Sallie M. McCorkle heads the center. continues next page Oklahoma State university 19 college news
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAxMjk=