Postcards from Wayne State

Wayne State College has suspended face-to-face classes and moved to a remote delivery model for the remainder of the semester. Many other schools have done the same thing across the country This week, we talk about curriculum development using learning technology. The podcast has advice for faculty and also helps students understand the challenges their teachers face right now.

This week we bring you what you might call a podcast within a podcast – a podcast created for the Sound Design course student Shelby Hagerdon. Shelby is majoring in History at Wayne State with minors in Geospatial Technology, Political Science, and Digital Film Production. The Sound design course is part of that third minor and addresses the wide range of audio production needed in today’s media environment, including for conventional radio, sound for film production, and podcasting. For one of her assignments, Shelby created three episodes of a podcast she calls Gilded Cast…discussing and re-enacting historical events and situations from the Guilded Age. In this pilot episode we’ll hear a recreated dialog of rival inventors Thomas Edison and Nikoli Tesla.

This week we talk with the director of the Wayne State Theatre, Professor Rusty Ruth, as well as theatre student Claire Barnes about the recent Kennedy Center competition theatre students participated in, as well as plans for the major production of “Pirates of Penzance” later this spring.

Our guest this week is Professor of Physics and Astronomy Todd Young, who is also director of the Fred G. Dale Planetarium at Wayne State. We talk about the active program of shows and activities at the planetarium, which is located on the lower floor of the Wayne State Carhart Science Building, including public shows and private group bookings. The planetarium is adding a laser show system and virtual reality. More information on the planetarium is at: https://www.wsc.edu/planetarium/

This Week on “Postcards from Wayne State” a press conference about the “Northeast Nebraska Growing Together” initiative… a major new four-year scholarship and cooperative education program at Wayne State…created in cooperation with the Aksarben Foundation and the Norfolk business community. The President of the Aksarben Foundation Sandra Reding and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts were present for the announcement, both of whom you’ll hear. One note – we weren’t able to be there in person to record the event with our own equipment, so we are borrowing the audio from other media that covered the event, with permission. About half-way through the event, the audio starts picking up distortion, which we aren’t able to filter out. We apologize for this, but we think the “Northeast Nebraska Growing Together” initiative is important enough to present the full audio.

Our topic this week is the Wayne State Honors Program, with Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities Yasuko Taoka who is also director of the Honors Program. We also talk with four students who are in the Honors Program this semester about their honors projects - Adam Smith, Shelby Hagerdon, Sarah Lorenzen, and Jordan Fashing.

We talk with Vaughn Benson, dean of the Wayne State School of Business and Technology. Dr. Benson is the longest-serving dean at WSC, and has recently announced that he is stepping down as dean and returning to the classroom. We talk about his decision, and about how both the School of Business and Technology, and the college as a whole, have changed since he first began teaching in 1974.

WSC Head Football Coach Dan McLaughlin announced his retirement at the end of the last semester. We present an encore of his appearance the next day on "Cat Talk," the sports talk show in KWSC-FM 91.9 the Cat…with hosts Austin Svehla and Blake Hilkemeier. The coach talks about his fifteen years as head football coach, his reasons for retiring now, and the most recent WSC Football season.

Our guest this week is the chancellor of the Nebraska State College system, Paul Turman. Dr. Turman is nearing the end of his first year as chancellor and was on the Wayne State campus recently for a college system board meeting. We talk with him about the role of his office, his own background, and about the major strategic planning process that has been in development over the last several months.

Our planned guest for this week had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances, so this week our topic is our podcast, itself. We'll talk about why we're doing it, how it's going, and what's coming up in the future.

Our guest this week is Ron Loggins, who this past summer became associate vice president for academic affairs after several years as a professor of Biology and department chair. This coming week is registration week at Wayne State, when students register for spring semester classes, so this week we explore how that process works, and how the college makes decisions about curriculum and the courses taught in the various academic departments.

Our topic this week is the Study Abroad program at Wayne State. We're talking with Lisa Nelson, the director of service-learning at WSC, who also coordinates Study Abroad. We're also talking with Abby McLean, a Wayne State student who studied abroad in Greece. We'll find out how study abroad works at WSC, and how the experience benefits students long after they return home.

Our guest this week is Wayne State Director of Admissions Kevin Halle. The way that the college finds prospective students, persuades them to choose WSC, and mentors them is WAY different from years past. It’s more complicated…and in this episode, we find out all about it.

Our guests this week are Wayne State Dean of Education and Counseling Nicholas “Nick” Shaduk and assistant professor of Educational Foundations and Leadership Christian Legler. We are talking about STEP - an innovative Wayne State program that is using new and better ways to help prepare high school students who want to become teachers and help them be ahead of the curve when they actually enroll in classes on the Wayne State campus.

This week on “Postcards from Wayne State” we talk with Cassie Post, an instructor in Criminal Justice at Wayne State College about the CSI House -- the Crime Scene Investigation house across the street south of the Willow Bowl. We'll talk about this instructional resource, which is unique in the region, and about how Criminal Justice students learn about solving crimes.

This week on “Postcards from Wayne State” we talk with Dr. Michael White about his film “Even Fallen” which premiers next week. Dr. White teaches popular film and video courses in the WSC Electronic Media program. He talks about his inspiration in creating this feature film, the practical considerations of how it went, and the role Wayne State students played in making the film a reality.

This week we're joined by Dr. Molly Curnyn, who teaches robotics courses at Wayne State College. We'll find out about this emerging technology, which is all around us, how Wayne State students learn robotics, and how they can use these skills when they graduate.

This week on Postcards from WSC we hear the president of Wayne State College, Marysz Rames, present her State of the College to a joint faculty meeting. Dr. Rames talks about enrollment and retention trends, as well as new initiatives underway at Wayne State.

This episode of Postcards from WSC features Jorge Adame and Morgan Sudbeck, the president and vice-president of the Wayne State student senate. They update us on student senate plans for the 2019-2020 school year, update us on the allocation of student activity funds to student organizations, and refresh our memory about how student government works at WSC.

This episode of Postcards from WSC features host Michael Marek with guest Mike Powicki, athletic director of Wayne State College. They talk about the two new sports offered at Wayne State staring in the 2019-2020 school year, and about planning for intercollegiate eSports competition.

The pilot episode of Postcards from WSC features host Michael Marek with guest Jay Collier, the director of Wayne State College Relations. They talk about what has been going on at Wayne State over the summer, and about what the College Relations office does.