University Beat; Compilation of Clips

Each week on the university discover how the University of South Florida reaches beyond campus to enhance community life in Tampa Bay and Sarasota. From medical research to small business development and lifelong learning. It's the university right after MORNING EDITION every Tuesday and Thursday. And right before all things considered Tuesday Thursday and Saturday on YOUR NPR station WUSA seven eighty nine point seven. This is the university beat song for got me one of the biggest changes in this state in the past decade has been the emergence of manufacturing and technology our economy has changed significantly as we've moved from Citrus to circuit boards. You going to help the small companies grow and expand Jack Doherty is the director of AM tech manufacturing training and education center part of U.S.'s

educational outreach. What happened is a boost economic development they bring more people into the community and it increases the skill level of the poison on your ear and kind of a choice to M.Tech is located in the Star Center in Largo. This facility houses dozens of smaller manufacturing and technology companies. These are precisely the kinds of companies M.Tech helps with its customized training programs. Primary need we've discovered. Is when I said I thought it was a big need for it and it's actually become a component of industry news news that needs to be done if they want to stay in it. I also 9000 has the management designation rather than compete to pool our resources. Partners with other groups go into the businesses to make them. More the universe.

This is the university beat I'm Sondra got me to.

The Bay Area is quickly becoming one of the best places in the country to start and develop a small business. One of the reasons we have the resources experts tell us that once you retire seven eight years. That after. All. These business owners at the annual Women in Business symposium and Expo are learning the critical financial factors that will not only get their businesses started but also keep them solvent annually as BBC sponsors several big events because of the interest in the area. I rehearsed as the director of the USAF Small Business Development Center. The SPDC puts on dozens of workshops seminars and Expos the biggest advantage I thing is that you get to meet a lot of different professionals as well as your peer in one day in one place. Teresa yarder owns today's information professionals research and information company. What I'm doing I'm new to the business so I am. Trying to find out what what they're used. What type of services we should

do. To help them with hiring their employees. Jean big board is about to start the first doggy day care in the area. The expo gave her a chance to do some networking. I've run into several people that like the lady that makes the necklaces she actually makes dog collars for arthritic dogs. I met her and I networked with a lot of people for the university beat'em Santagati. This is the university beat I'm Sondra happy. If you ask most of us about

I-4. We think of this our own. Alphonso Johnson. But an intense initiative led by USF and the University of Central Florida is working to change the image of eye for from traffic jam to digital jam the I-4 corridor from Tampa Bay to Orlando is becoming the high tech corridor high tech has traditionally been the gateway to a very high standard of living. Dr. Michael Colback is the former dean of the College of Engineering at USA. He is now the university's director of high technology development a position that allows him to focus on recruiting and developing a high tech business. The emergence of the Tampa area which we hope will be known as Florida's technology base is going to be a major part of the next decade's growth in the Tampa Bay area workforce development is critical to getting this area to a place that is attractive for high tech operations. But Compaq points out that it goes beyond training.

We need a culture change and I'd like to point out to people as they go into the coffee shops in Palo Alto and Menlo Park in California. And listen to the conversations that take place there talk about IPO latest B.S. and where can I get some expertise in certain technologies. That kind of culture is what's necessary to create a very robust high technology environment. Once we create that we can develop the workforce and attract high tech people to our community or the university. This is the university beat. Since you're listening to us SAP

You obviously love great music for most of us this affection began at childhood. For high school junior Brad. It started 11 years ago. Brad takes piano lessons from the director of Community Music at USC. People moved to Tampa the first place they basically call for music lessons or art lessons or so is us. The school offers opportunities for all ages. In addition to private lessons Community Music has programs that include a string ensemble Suzuki violin voice and piano. I think the most important thing for community music or any of our outreach programs. Is to get children to a point where they appreciate the fine arts. Even babies get involved. They have a class of their parents called music together music together is a bonding between the parent and the child. They do body movement singing the songs playing a rhythmic instrument says adult

students look at piano as a stress reliever and a chance to escape the chaos of the world. Music encourages discipline. And for students like Brad it's meant statewide recognition scholarship potential and a life where the university beat me. This is the university beat I'm Sondra got. One of the great advantages of living

in a university town is the opportunity to actually participate in cultural and educational events. We're going out of the way to provide a service that is not being met in the community in any organized way. Dr. Jay Black is the chair of media ethics and press policy as well as Director of ethics programs at us at St. Petersburg. And it's again it's a function of the university. It's one of our important functions because we're a part of this community. We want the community to take advantage of what we can offer people in the community ask for a chance to discuss critical ethical issues. We usually address ethics when something has gone haywire. If we instead guru approach it in a proactive way saying how can we deal with important issues intelligently and honestly and openly. How can we front load some of our ethical decision making rather than wait for a crisis. Sylvia Peters spoke to a couple hundred people last week about the trends in teaching ethics in the public schools.

When I first heard Sylvia Peters I noticed that there wasn't a dry eye in the audience after the first three minutes. And I. Now there's a woman who's been there done that speaks the language of her audience and the other speakers are very much like that. This free lecture series continues through April at us. Topics include political campaigns journalism Internet ethics. Where the university beat. This is the university. Hurricane season is still a few months

away but for many in this community the storms are a year round concern. Dr. Arlene Lang teaches climatology and meteorology at USC right know I'm doing research on hurricane rainfall. And this has become much more much more of a problem in recent years. If people remember Hurricane Floyd during the last season much of the damage and devastation and fatalities were due to flooding and not to a storm surge or winds. She's working with satellite data from Nassau to come up with a better calculation of projected hurricane rainfall that way. Emergency managers and the general population can mitigate against the flood hazard aspects of of hurricanes. Dr. Graham Tobin is the chair of the Department of Geography. He's encouraging the various departments to work together in these critical research areas that will be working with the Hillsborough County has a mitigation team trying to come up with new ways of looking at the problem of how to respond. Their work includes predicting and calculating the effects of other natural disasters. For

example Dr. Lange is investigating flash floods and wildfire outbreaks especially in the newly developed areas of western Florida. Part of what I need to do. Is to find ways of bit of forecasting that we the people who are fighting the fires can make better decisions about that. For the university beat I'm Santagati. And.

Here. This is the university beat on Santagati. Living in Florida. It's often easy to miss the state's beauty wonder and charm. But writers and aspiring writers are being encouraged to seek out the true Florida as the locale for their work. You know when I hear the panel discussion Florida's history and locales novices and novel Les got together to discuss what order writers need Marianne let turn know it's a budding writer. I've got a notebook filled with ideas. Especially about publishing and about taking what I've already written and. Also about self-discipline and keeping myself going and doing this. The panel capped off the annual US Florida Suncoast Writers Conference

Fowler was the featured panelist. The thing about being a Florida writer is that we are a state that if we ever had a singular identity it was lost long ago so we by trying to figure out who we are and what we are especially people who live here as the author of four novels including the bestseller before women had wings thinks more writers should place their work in Florida. We have terrible problems with self-esteem in this day and I don't know why. It's the oddest thing and it's such a beautiful wondrous place at its core not the condo's not what's been happening with development. But but the old Florida that really does still exist in many places despite the writers conferences co-sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council for the university beat. This is the university behind. West Tampa's a neighborhood you can

easily mess. In fact you probably have. As you head south on Interstate 275 West Tampa is on your right between Howard Armenian and Hines. Most of the houses have bars on the windows and many chain link fences around the yards. Yet it's within three miles of 110000 jobs. Five minutes from the airport and a quick drive from the heart of the city. The neighborhood really does have its own charm. No one is saying that the West Tampa neighborhood down Dr. James Moore is the acting director of the US after school of architecture and community design certainly not of Certainly blighted what other neighborhoods are. But clearly the urban design class responded to the West Tampa Chamber of Commerce requests for help and I think they felt that it would be useful to have university involved because universities are more impartial. It's not an active player with voters no political bias it's not a developer

monitoring the architecture students will help them look at the big picture and address or the project belongs to the people in their project. We're actually helping. So it's really treating us as a resource. Moore says there are several small projects that could produce changes within a year. A lot of issues that make. Maybe the next interesting neighborhood. Or the university beat. This is the university. Everyone forgets where we left the

car keys from time to time or can't remember the name of someone we met recently. That's normal and nothing to worry about. I think what distinguishes those types of memory complaints with more pathological or more disturbing memory complaints is sort of the frequency of the planes but also in in their context. Dr. Brant small is an assistant professor in the USAF department of gerontology and a researcher at the Ross Kemp Institute the institute provides free memory screenings for people who think they have a problem. The initial screening is just an hour. It includes a medical history memory related tasks and a blood test which is used for genetic analysis. Currently there's no single gene that conveys an absolute risk for Alzheimer's disease but we hope that some of the research that we're doing at the Ross Institute will help identify a gene or a family of genes. The good news the difficulties in memory may not mean Alzheimer's. Metabolic

disturbances vitamin deficiencies and prescription drug interaction. We have people who come in who are concerned about their memory. But we look at their performance in relationship to people of similar age and similar educational backgrounds and we find that they're actually located on the campus. The institute is dedicated to finding the cure. For the university. In this competitive job market employers are beginning to offer significant benefits to attract

top workers. Education benefits are especially appealing the Florida engineering education delivery system for beads is one of the benefits now available to technology companies. A lot of the companies locally are using feeds as a recruiting tool. They're telling their engineers if you take a job with us you have access to advanced education in engineering via the feeds program and we also will pay for your tuition. Dr. Joanne Larson is the U.S. engineering professor who heads the program in the Star Center in Largo the star center is the site for high tech companies. This becomes a draw for high tech companies to locate in the Star Center because we have available what is considered technological education. There are two small conference rooms at the center that are electronically connected to a classroom at the College of Engineering. Michael graduates works for Raytheon. Traffic arranges work schedule around classes

as a full time student who lives in Pinellas and takes all of her classes. It's a whole different being able to take classes here classes are available for undergrad and graduate level for the university. This is the university.

Boiling and trolling while many elementary aged children are home watching cartoons on television. These young people are learning the art of acting. We have focused more on process than product. You know at the end but there's not a recital like you have in dance classes but we work more on you know improvisational skills communication skills Jason Headley is one of the instructors in the beginning acting classes. It's part of the Saturday arts classes offered by US sets educational outreach program for children in this class are eight to 12 years old I think it broadens you know their knowledge of the world. I think obvious things like communication skills. These kids are taught how to express themselves. Especially now I think when things are getting you know technology and email and video games we're losing the art of interpersonal communication. So if these kids can be an atmosphere where they can actually you know respond to one another and interact with each other.

You know it can't be anything but positive and the children pay attention get involved and participate. Adam loves it. He learned how to do in private he learned how to be that way. Someplace you know we are he's going to be in front of an audience stuff. There is teamwork and collaboration as well as skills development. The tongue twisters help train the vocal muscles as well as improve their speaking skills. For the university beat. This is the university beat I'm Sondra got the OCO stuff is still drying.

Joe Quackenbush and his Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers just finished painting one of the outside walls of the Omar Lightfoot Senior Services Center in Temple Terrace. We like the above nearly about 60 US students came out on a beautiful Saturday morning to give the senior center a face lift the part of volunteer USF. I think I got my opinion of myself that I didn't look needy Chander is from Golden P. National Honor Society. This group of top scholars sent out a dozen volunteers. When I first got here that I do something little like little lost we got on the way up to the time I would be there like I was you know things that was fun. These are all volunteers who work purely for the satisfaction of contributing to the community. There's no college credit. Nothing. The University of South Florida is an integral part of the Tampa community definitely in North Tampa and it is a way to give back. To the community in which we live. Robert Dotson is the graduate assistant with the student activities Department. They help me here the students work alongside groups corporations and other schools. One hundred

forty people transformed the senior services center into a bright attractive and volunteer US that has other projects clean up highway cleanup painting tutoring and mentoring all throughout the Bay Area for the university beat. This is the university beat. I'm. As unpopular as smoking

is right now. Quitting has not become any easier. The good news is about 70 percent of smokers want to quit. Each year about 30 percent do attempt to quit. Dr. Thomas Brandon is the director of tobacco research and intervention or trip. At the cancer center. The bad news is most of those folks who are able to quit even for a short period of time end up relapsing. They start talking again about 90 to 95 percent. Dr. Brennan has been working in the area of smoking cessation since 1982. He knows that a good drug treatment program includes relapse prevention. The idea behind this project came about when some ex-smokers approached me after I gave a talk somewhere several years ago and said. I know you've got a clinic is there anything you have for me everybody quit smoking. It's been a month but I'm still struggling. That's right you can do for me and it was nothing. Until now the Moffitt clinics press break offers free or low cost programs. It's not group therapy and it's actually minimal intervention. Sent through the mail we were able to reduce relapse by at least two thirds.

The study continues. They are including a wider range of the population we're looking for people who have already quit smoking for six months or less. Sponsored by Tripp which conducts research on tobacco use and community education efforts throughout the Bay Area for the university. This is the university beat Santagati. While most entrepreneurs and

startup companies would love to have an MBA on their teams Theo can afford the luxury of hiring one dedicated to a special project but a program at the U.S. EP College of Business Administration puts teams of graduate students together with area for profit and not for profit organizations. Paul Solomon is a professor of marketing and a faculty member of the integrated business applications course. We've done plans for the New York City Museum and they've been able to get additional funding for the first time had a real plan. We've also done plans for the botanical garden that hasn't opened yet. Over in the Largo according to Greg Marshall associate professor of marketing the companies are often leading edge highly desirable entities. This semester we have a biotech company starting up that should be associated with the colleges throughout the university and gives them plenty of course and future vestment opportunities to the local community.

Finance Professor Steve Martin says the business plans developed by the students are worth tens of thousands of dollars in the marketplace. They were very satisfied with the product and it was remarked how each of the students in the team had contributed a new slant to the business and had actually implemented many of the recommendations of the students cooperating businesses just need to agree to spend time with the students and be open with their financial information for the university. This is the university beat I'm Sondra going.

With all that today's technology and computers can do neither can replace the value of knowing our history and understanding our roots. I think people who know and have a sense that the proof of work has been. A bit better since you were able to go Peter Lattman as the curator at the US Ep. resource center for Florida history and politics. As such he's organizing a statewide oral history project for every decision that gets made. In history. Two decisions to take into account decisions precedent thought process. Tend to be better decisions. The stories of people who were part of the process are valuable and that they give us a glimpse into what they were thinking and how they arrived at decisions. Oral History is a vehicle it is a technique a way to conduct a story. We should not be only maybe not the best but in fact it's a very important one in us as collecting oral histories from some of the key figures of local politics and community leadership.

One of the things we're talking about those historical periods to us. Digitizing the oral history project is accessible through the USF website. We are here to teach people. How to do oral history. WELCOME TO WHEREVER YOU ARE talk to whatever group and help people address their own local issues. The emphasis is on the stories of those influencing the development of the Bay Area for the university. This is the university. Recently I had the privilege of

spending a few hours with cancer survivors surviving really isn't the right word. These people are thriving. Well we really know how to live and we know what's important in life and it's not the things that we worried about your hand it really set your priorities straight. Surely gallants leads a peer support group called Chip cancer help in progress. She was one of the more than 100 cancer survivors who participated in the forum cancer survivorship held at the USF College of Public Health. Some of their best advice join a support group. As time has gone by I realize that helping other people helps me cope. When Martinez looks like a fitness trainer She's had three babies in the past few years all while being treated for breast cancer. They see other women going through the same type of situation and I didn't think that this is what I did and this made me feel better maybe this will work for you. Martinez now chairs the breast cancer support group at USF h li Moffat. Each survivor has their own way of coping. Pam Brigham a nurse found she needs to

surround herself with living things. After my cancer diagnosis I went but 10 birds three dogs a fish a turtle a rabbit and a pig. She's also found some conventional healing methods work such as drug therapies Brigham is now a sales representative for ortho biotech maker of several cancer treatments. When I talk to physicians it's not just a drug. This is a drug that changes people's lives and I was there so I know for the university beat. This is the university forgot that one of the hardest things about

starting a business is going through the complex steps of actually making it a business. There are licenses to file laws to follow and regulations to fulfill. We have found that people that do a little bit more homework are more successful in their businesses Eileen Rodriguez is one of the counselors and leaders of the USF Small Business Development Center. It's her job to help businesses get off the ground and work through the red tape. U.S.'s Small Business Development Center is a wonderful vehicle to help businesses either who are just starting or were thinking about starting Xandros Now as with g t the communications giant gave the SPDC a grant to put together a website that gives city and county licensing zoning and other business requirements in the seven counties around the Bay Area. Well if you went to all the different places that this information came from you know you are talking about a couple days maybe even a week's worth of research and now you can easily click and get the information you need and keep moving on. Business as opposed to spending the time to research does benefit by growing new customers and

helping create jobs. We're also seeing some of the new businesses being very telecommunications pensive. And so some of our new products to get higher and with greater speeds are benefiting from our investment and we're benefiting from that growing in this area. We can also either work the site is free. You can get there through the USA website or the university beat. This is the university beat I'm Sondra happy as you go through Polk County

you come to places like Mulberry I'm Barto the relatively small towns with low profiles yet what they produce impacts the world. This is the heart of phosphate mining in Florida and phosphate is the key ingredient in fertilizer. We have about 6 billion people in the world these days. And if you don't hope for the wise Well you're not going to feed all 6 billion people will be a lot of hunger. This will go for a walk. Dr. Paul Clippard is the executive director of the Florida Institute a phosphate research associated with us APS Office of Research fertilizer increases the productivity of land to produce crops. We need the food and the bay area needs the phosphate industry the phosphate industry has a significant impact on the local economy. The Port of Tampa is highly dependent on the industry. The single largest customer of the port is the phosphate industry. Us Our researchers at the Institute are studying issues such as land reclamation.

One of the most important things you can do with the land is to reclaim it for beneficial environmental purposes. Dr Clifford's job involves both research and oversight. I think we need to have the industry be profitable and successful and at the same time address the environmental issues that are associated with the Florida Institute of phosphate research is available to the public or the university. This is the university beat I'm Santagati a graduate research

project can take two years to complete yet to Wapping the final product gets left on the shelf. But you're right you ss research Day 2000 graduate students get to show off their work in social sciences and social work early on. Roberts is co-chair of the event. It's a flight research agency base. We figure that's the most valuable because it can actually serve human beings and improve the quality of life of people in the community. The actual. Study was done for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Elisa Doro is one of the award winners. This graduate student studied trends in violent crimes against the elderly. The most significant finding of the study was that crime tended to decrease in the year 1999 and that domestic violence. Had a one third a crease in 1999 and it coincided with a series of policy changes within the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office as well as the legislature Michel Oman's tracked

ethnic categories of exceptional student education in Manatee County. The basic conclusions were that African-American students are overrepresented and the severely emotionally disturbed and mostly handicapped as sickly and mentally handicapped and their specific learning disability populations Wescott case and students were under represented in all those categories. Research day is sponsored by the USF collaborative project. Families and communities for the university beat. This is the university beat I'm Sondra got.

If I come up to you and say a doctor and a lawyer went into a room it sounds like the beginning of another hackneyed joke USF professor of public health Jay Wolfson is quite well aware of the distrust between doctors and attorneys. He thinks both professions as well as the general public can benefit from improved relationships. We are putting on our first continuing legal education medical education program called law for physicians and medicine for attorneys where we're going to bring together both groups and talk about problems with managed care contracting fraud and abuse. Reporting to professional organizations Dr. Wolfson is co-director of the consortium of medicine and law at Stetson University and the University of South Florida. That's going to be our first step toward understanding how we can work together to break down what have been very nasty barriers between physicians and attorneys over the years. One of the primary benefits of the consortium is education. The second thing we think is going to be very important will be increased research opportunities so that we can explore questions of quality of care

of access to care the rights of individuals with the needs of physicians and of how the legal system works at various levels to protect the rights of all parties. WOLFSON adds that the public will have an opportunity to participate by expressing their concerns and prostrations with the medical system in public forums. Or the university beat. This is the university beat I'm Sondra got the water is always an important

issue in the Bay area this year. It's critical. And I'm sure a very hollow Susan Stevens uses this rain barrel in front of her house to collect the water from the gutters. This is actually a kind of virally really like to use their little abut it right now. For a missile or something down there. It's not very nice. When I visited zoos and we were still in the midst of drought with the help of a grant from Swift mud she and the US s student environmental Association developed a project that provides barrels to homeowners for $45 install. Really they're kind of customized to each house. You figure out where you want that downspout to enter the barrel and then you have to plummet. Actually plummet into the barrel and then seal it then use the saved water for drip irrigation in your yard. But Stevens emphasizes that rain barrels are just one way we can be water smart.

If we take shorter showers showers if we rinse our dishes really well before we use a dishwasher affects how you do your dishes try not to dishwasher every day if you don't have to use or disposal when you wash your hands or when you brush your teeth. Don't just let the water run. Pretend you live on a boat. If you live on a boat you have limited water and you're very aware of it all the time and turn the water off when you're doing things for the university. Listening University beat on song for God.

Great theater starts on Broadway or in London and sometimes even in Tampa. The bridge program brings top British actors directors and playwrights to the USF campus each summer. They impart their skills and artistry on the students and community members who participate and why when an accomplished artist working with students because working with students is terrific and says a great deal of freedom and on the street which sometimes gets squashed out in the professional theatre. Matthew Francis is the London director who is at us after six weeks this summer. You can often find an enthusiasm and well of truth that students don't always find behind the elaborate techniques of highly experienced actors. Francis is directing his own adaptation of the Dickens classic The Old Curiosity Shop. Jason Head is one of the lead.

So we're in the premiere of this adaptation. You know so in essence we're creating a role originating a role. Is that right you know which critics I hadin says the production appeals to all ages. It's going to the classic good versus evil you know in the line of A Christmas Carol type thing you know difficult thing that kids will want to see and and parents will love to. The Old Curiosity Shop is reformed June 15 to 18 on the USF campus and June 21 to 23 at the Palladium theater in St. Petersburg where the university beat I'm Sondra. This is the university be on Sondra Guffey. If you are fair skinned

blue eyed and over 50 you run a higher risk than the rest of us of suffering from macular degeneration a leading cause of blindness. There are two types of macular degeneration wet and dry. Usually the vision loss is slow with a dry time where macular degeneration is when new vessels grow through the sheol deposits. Onto the retina where they don't belong and used abnormal vessels leak fluid. Hence the tour where Dr Peter Pavan is chair of the USAF department of ophthalmology. He was one of the physicians involved in the clinical trials of the busy treatment the diet given in your bank then to die is taken up by the abnormal vessels preferentially. We shine a laser light. In your eye on the new vessels. The combination of the light damage to the normal grass is the

name of this particular the treatment was just recently approved by the FDA and several retinal specialists in the Bay Area are now using. This is not a cure. It's a significant step forward and it's going to help a lot of patients. It's not going to help a lot of others. There are other dogs being looked at the expense of costs $500 per treatment plus physicians. As of now Medicare does not cover. The university beat.