THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS ORGANIZATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | WWW.NEWSRECORD.ORG
The News Record
131 years in print Vol. CXXXI Issue xIX
MONDAY | NOV. 15 | 2010
streak hits
the walking
three
sports | 4
Bearcats drop 37-10 decision to WVU
dead
entertainment | 2
Comic-based series thrills zombie fans
Black males face education woes graduation rates
key Black MALEs white MALEs
15%
(based on u.s. department of education statistics)
33%
29%
52%
Within five years
Within four years
36%
57%
Within six years
Graphic by Gin A. Ando | Editor-In-Chief
ONE PUZZLE PIECE Lower college graduation rates are only one of many problems black males face that white males do not. Statistics also show black males experience higher unemployment rates.
Exchange inspires education
GERMAN LOPEZ | news editor
A new report by the Council of Greater City Schools paints a grim picture for the nation’s black males. The report, “A Call for Change,” released Nov. 9, found that blacks are facing problems white males are not. “The nation’s young black males are in a state of crisis,” wrote Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of Greater City Schools. “They do not have the same opportunities as their [white] male or female counterparts across the country.” The report states the unemployment rate for black males is double what white males face. With a national unemployment rate of 9.6
percent, 8.6 percent of white males are unemployed, while 17.3 percent of black males are looking for a job. The results claim blacks have worse college graduation rates as well. Fifteen percent of black males seeking full-time, fouryear degrees graduated within four years of entering school, compared to 33 percent of white males. Only 36 percent of black males are expected to graduate within six years in contrast to 57 percent of white males. The report contributes the difference to a lifetime of inhibition. “Their infant mortality rates are higher, and their access to health care is more limited,” Casserly wrote. “They are more likely to live in single-parent homes and less likely to participate in early childcare programs. They
are less likely to be raised in a household with a fully employed adult, and they are more likely to live in poverty.” The report asserts blacks also have unfavorable conditions in secondary education. In 2009, 33 percent of white males in national public schools were performing at or above “proficient” reading levels. Only 8 percent of black males in large city schools were at or above “proficient” reading levels, according to the report. The report should be taken as a case for reform, Casserly said. “Our ability to maintain our success and leadership is jeopardized by having so much talent go to waste,” he wrote. “This report is a call to action for America to do better.”
photos by eamon queeney| photo editor
WE PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE The University of Cincinnati hosted an annual event honoring veterans and soldiers. This year, Maj. Gen. Steve Abt was the ceremony’s guest speaker. He praised UC’s ROTC cadets as the future defenders of freedom.
ariel cheung | managing editor
The unveiling of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange Project gave the University of Cincinnati journalism department an opportunity to showcase its program beyond the classroom. “It’s the kind of project that we think really sets our curriculum apart in terms of exploratory and documentary journalism,” said Elissa Sonnenberg, assistant director of the UC journalism department. Sonnenberg led two seminars focusing on the Cincinnati Stock Exchange (CSE), during which approximately 16 students researched the world’s first fully automated stock exchange. They worked with the Cincinnati Historical Society Library and the Cincinnati Museum Center to gather information. The project, supported by UC Board of Trustees member Buck Niehoff and his brother Nick, resulted in an interactive website where visitors can read articles about the CSE and share stories about the stock market. “I like to compare the way we approached the project to how the CSE approached automation,” Sonnenberg said. “They wanted to use the best tools for the best product. If we had just created a book or something static, it would have been a one-shot thing.” Sonnenberg wants the project become a fixture of the journalism department. “What we would love to do is fold it into the New Media Bureau,” she said, referencing to a program that lets UC journalism students create print, web and multimedia packages.
photo courtesy of elissa sonnenberg
CUTTING A DEAL Barney Kroger, founder of the Kroger grocery stores, signed on to the CSE in the 1920s and profited greatly.
honoring veterans james sprague | NEWS EDITOR
T
he University of Cincinnati honored the service of military veterans past and present Friday during its annual Veterans Day ceremony on McMicken Commons. Approximately 150 cadets from UC’s Air Force and Army ROTC programs, the UC Bearcat Band, the Cincinnati Police Department’s Mounted Patrol and current and former military veterans joined UC President Greg Williams in saluting those who served and sacrificed. Williams began the ceremony by defining the meaning of Veterans Day. “In America we pause to honor those men and women who have given and sacrificed so much to our nation,”Williams said. He also commented on how UC is working with veteran students to better their academic career. “We offer credit for military experience, which allows our veteran students to enroll with transfer credit rather than
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with the recognition of senior and graduate student veterans for their service as two members of the Bearcat Band positioned on the McMicken Hall and Tangeman University Center towers played “Taps” across McMicken Commons.
New study measures doctoral stress german lopez | NEWS EDITOR
wed
Abt also addressed UC’s ROTC cadets, calling them the veterans of the future and expressing his faith that they will pick up where previous veterans had left off. “We are confident that you will assume and carry the banner of freedom and take your turn standing the wall,” Abt said. UC alumnus and former prisoner of war Robert Howeler was also recognized by the university with a certificate of appreciation from Williams and a blanket with the UC logo. Howeler, a 1951 graduate of UC’s College of Business, served with the U.S. Army’s 12th Armored Division in World War II and was wounded and captured by the Nazis in northern France on Jan. 16, 1945. Howeler told the audience that freedom is the country’s greatest asset and reminded the ROTC cadets that they were now tasked with defending that freedom. “Freedom is now in your hands,” Howeler said. “May God give you the strength and resolve to preserve our freedom.” The ceremony concluded
UC-based reports confirm stress-testing methods
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freshman status,” Williams said. “We provide clearance for military students called into active duty to return to UC without penalties for withdrawing from school.” To further assist veterans at UC, the university is hiring additional staff members at UC’s main campus and Clermont branch. The extra staff should streamline the benefit and transition process for veterans and UC’s “Salute to Service” initiative, which provides scholarships and support services to veterans, Williams said. “I share the university’s commitment to be the destination campus for veteran students,” he said. The ceremony’s guest speaker was Maj. Gen. Steven Abt, the deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Accessions Command at Fort Knox, Ky. Abt began his remarks with the renowned dialogue of Jack Nicholson’s character, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Nathan Jessup, from the film “A Few Good Men.” He mentioned how the film was released in 1992, the same year many of the ROTC cadets had been born.
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Two new University of Cincinnati studies have found methods to measure clinical stress. The studies found that the tools used to measure non-clinical work intensity – NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and the Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT) – can be used to measure physicians’ stress levels. The studies were published Oct. 29 and Nov. 9 by Ronnie Horner, a
director in the Department of Public Health Sciences, and C. Jeff Jacobson, an associate professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine. The studies could be used to improve patient care and physician job satisfaction, Horner said. “Work intensity for physicians during office-based patient care affects quality of care and patient safety as well as job satisfaction and reimbursement,” Horner said. Jacobson’s study
looked at 19 doctors: five family physicians, five general internists, five neurologists and four surgeons. Each doctor described stress levels and was observed during a routine workday. “We wanted to document and describe subjective and observable work intensity dimensions for physicians in office-based clinical settings and examine them in relation to the measurement procedures and dimensions of the SWAT and NASA-TLX
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intensity measures,” Jacobson said. The stress levels matched the dimensions of NASA-TLX and SWAT, Jacobson said. Horner said stress levels are also based on the individuals. “Provider personality was associated with reported levels of work intensity and stress,” Horner said. The 14-doctor study found that NASA-TLX and SWAT worked in a clinical setting. Horner said the
results could help doctors and patients. “Such information could help improve health care delivery, such as improved efficiency in practice organization and management,” Horner said. “The new information may also guide the establishment of physician incentives that will be proportional to actual work performed.” The studies were funded by the American Academy of Neurology and the American Academy of Dermatology.