WSU Spokane Campus Bulletin
Issue 2005-20 (December 7, 2005)


IN THIS ISSUE

Underline

Intimate Partner Violence Comes at High Cost to Employers

Harassment, threatening, and physical abuse by current or former spouses or partners are serious issues that frequently intrude into the workplace. When they do, these behaviors can have a significant effect on the victim’s work performance. These are some of the conclusions outlined in a recently published research report titled, “Intimate Violence: It’s a Workplace Issue!”

Authored by Christopher Blodgett, PhD, director of the Child and Family Research Unit (CAFRU) at Washington State University Spokane, and Jennifer Stapleton, director of the Spokane County Domestic Violence Consortium, the report is based on a three-year program started in 2002 that focuses on prevention, intervention, and research of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the workplace.

More inclusive than the concept of domestic violence, intimate partner violence is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “the use of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or threats to control another person who is a current or former husband or wife, or other intimate partner such as a boyfriend or a girlfriend.”

Surveying close to 1,500 employees based in 32 participating companies in Spokane County, the study has found that 21 percent of male employees and 52 percent of female employees reported being a victim of intimate partner violence at some time during their lives. Among victims, 27 percent of men and 35 percent of women said that intimate partner violence intruded into the workplace at some time in their careers. In most cases, workplace intrusions were a repeated problem rather than an isolated incident.

One of the most compelling arguments made in the report is that the cost to society of intimate partner violence is substantial. The authors found that verbal conflict, mental health problems, emotional distress, and legal proceedings relating to IPV often result in absenteeism and work performance problems. Fellow employees are affected too—in addition to anxiety and increased workloads, co-workers experience direct threats or harassment in nearly 20% of IPV incidents in the workplace. “The scope of the problem is really greater than we thought it was,” Blodgett said.

To Blodgett, the study results are evidence that the development of services for IPV victims in the workplace is a critical step in reducing individual and corporate risk. “Employers need to be paying attention to this, because it’s reducing work efficiency and productivity, increasing their cost of production, and leading to instability in the workforce,” he said.

According to Blodgett, the study is one of the largest data sources on employee exposure to IPV in the country, and plans are under way to replicate the study in other communities. Hoping that more employers will start to realize the pervasiveness of the problem and their role in it, he said that “we have to stop seeing this as a health, criminal justice, or social justice issue and start seeing this as a community problem.” Return to the Top of the Page

Older Teens Need More Sleep, Later Wake-Up Times

Many teens are chronically sleep deprived, resulting in poor school performance, impaired cognitive and memory functioning, and mood problems. This was one of the points made by internationally renowned sleep researcher Mary Carskadon in her December 2 lecture, “How Development of Sleep-Wake Regulation Affects Teen Sleep,” at WSU Spokane.

A professor of psychiatry at the Brown University School of Medicine and director of chronobiology and sleep research at the E.P. Bradley Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, Carskadon has done extensive research in the area of sleep/wake behavior in adolescents. Her pioneering work has challenged some commonly held beliefs, including the hypothesis that kids need less sleep as they mature.

Through her “sleep camp” studies—which examined 10- to 12-year olds over the course of four to six summers—she found that both younger and older teens need an average of 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep each night. However, social pressures, psychological stressors, stimulation by modern technology, and other factors are contributing to the reality that most high-school age kids only get an average of 7 hours of sleep.

Carskadon explained that the chief difference between younger and older teens is in the timing, rather than the duration, of the sleep they need. She found that the biological clock of mature teens is set differently, causing them to get sleepy later at night and have difficulty waking up early in the morning. They also have a mid-afternoon “dip” that is not present in younger teens.

Carskadon used this image—which shows the message displayed on the reverse side of this school's final exam schedule—to illustrate the point  that we have a long way to go before our society acknowledges the value of sleep.

Challenging Franklin’s conventional wisdom that “early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” she argued that school districts’ early start times for mature teens are negatively affecting their performance. “Even if you love to learn, how can you love to learn when you’re being forced to do it at a time when you are at your absolute worst?” she asked.

In addition, she pointed to the dangers of teens driving themselves to school for early classes, showing statistics that attributed 50% of crashes that involved a driver falling asleep to 16- to 25-year olds.

Carskadon spoke at the invitation of WSU Spokane’s sleep and performance research center, headed by Dr. Gregory Belenky. In a state-of-the-art sleep laboratory, which is under construction and slated for completion in January, Belenky and his colleagues will conduct carefully controlled experiments to study sleep and performance issues in healthy adults. The lab will also serve as a base for staging field studies related to sleep and performance in the work environment. Return to the Top of the Page

Creating Sustainable Habitat—Design Institute Students to Help Create First Habitat for Humanity “Green Home”

The first little pig was onto something. His house of straw may not have withstood the wolf’s huffing and puffing, but it was constructed from renewable and environmentally sensitive construction materials that may become the centerpiece of the newest Habitat for Humanity home in Spokane, with help from students and faculty of WSU Spokane.

The Interdisciplinary Design Institute, Northwest EcoBuilding Guild, and Habitat for Humanity Spokane are collaborating in an investigation of environmentally thoughtful residential designs for two proposed single-family Habitat housing sites in Spokane. The intention is to select a design to be constructed winter/spring 2006, using primarily student labor.

Students in the interdisciplinary studio taught by Matt Melcher, assistant professor of interior design, created 16 proposals. These have been narrowed to 4 finalists, and the final design will be selected by a jury during a final design review on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Gallery of the Phase I Classroom Building. The review will be open to the public and the media.

To start their work, students researched “best sustainable design practices,” including site orientation and landscape development; active/passive heating, cooling, and lighting considerations; eco-friendly materials and finishes; use of locally available products; use of alternative building systems and equipment. They also took into consideration environmental air quality issues, construction technology, typical needs of Habitat clients/homeowners, and budgetary constraints.

Melcher said the goal is to incorporate sustainable design practices throughout the project, from landscape design to the building to the interior. Students are using the Daylighting Lab on campus for energy modeling and the effects of their design choices on the quality of light within the home.

Two of the four final designs incorporate straw-bale construction techniques, thus proposing the use of a locally grown agricultural byproduct.

Construction of the home should begin in January or February of 2006. Habitat for Humanity hopes to recruit students, faculty, staff, and alumni of WSU to participate in the project. Melcher said, “We especially hope to involve WSU graduates from construction management and the design disciplines, and those working in the construction industry.”

For information on volunteering, contact Habitat for Humanity Spokane, 534-2552, ext. 21. We’ll huff, and we’ll puff, and we’ll build the house up.
Return to the Top of the Page

Curing Cancer? WSU Pharmacy Student Is Doing her Share through Research

Much of WSU’s reputation as one of the top public research universities in the nation is owed to its students, such as third-year Doctor of Pharmacy candidate Alina Chahal.

Chahal and Professor Kathryn Meier, pharmaceutical sciences, WSU Pullman, went to North Carolina last month to present their research, “Effects of EGF on Autotaxin Activity in Human Ovarian Cancer Cells,” at the 40th Southeastern Regional Lipid Conference.

Supported by an American Foundation for Pharmacy Education Gateway to Research Fellowship, Chahal spent much of last summer laying the foundation for the presentation. Her project involved setting up and modifying an assay used to determine levels of autotaxin.

Autotaxin is an enzyme that plays a role in the production of a lipid called lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). LPA plays a role in cell motility, cell invasion, wound healing, cell proliferation, and cell survival. LPA levels are elevated in ovarian cancer patients, and LPA has been shown to increase tumor metastasis in ovarian cancer.

Using the assay Chahal designed, she and Meier set out to determine autotaxin’s involvement in the increase of LPA production seen in cells treated with a protein known as epidermal growth factor (EGF). They measured autotaxin levels in several different types of human ovarian cancer cells treated with and without EGF and found that autotaxin levels increased only in certain types of cells treated with EGF.

Although the experiment did not clarify whether autotaxin is responsible for the EGF-induced LPA production, it did show that autotaxin may be an important factor in the long-term regulation of extracellular LPA levels.

Chahal and Meier’s experiment is important, as therapeutic agents that antagonize LPA receptors or inhibit LPA production could potentially be used to reduce tumor growth and metastatic disease. "Further research to more specifically identify ways that LPA is produced in various cancers is vital, as it is the backbone needed for the development of potentially life-saving drugs," Chahal said.Return to the Top of the Page

 

New Leadership at CALS

Bob Pringle, director of nursing library services, has been named to direct the Cooperative Academic Library Services on the Riverpoint campus.

Pringle became a librarian in “mid-career”, earning his MLS from the University of Washington in 1978, after 11 years of Army service. He joined the WSU library faculty at the Betty M. Anderson Library at the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing in 1980.

As director at both libraries, Pringle will continue to coordinate library support for the College of Nursing across the university system, including acting as a liaison with the regional campuses and other sites where nursing faculty teach. Mary Wood, reference and cataloging librarian at the College of Nursing, has added to her responsibilities while Bob travels back and forth between the two locations he serves.

At CALS, Pringle will be helping to plan the move into the Academic Center, which is slated for June 2006, and working out library support for WSU and EWU programs on the Riverpoint campus. Since the two libraries will remain physically separate until the Nursing Building is completed in August 2008, WSU Spokane has hired Kathy Schwanz on a temporary basis to provide reference service at CALS and act as assistant director. Schwanz served as director of CALS prior to David Buxton, who recently left Spokane to take a position at Harvard University.

Pringle promotes nursing librarianship nationally in the Medical Library Association, and encourages sharing of information resources at state and regional levels through various groups and task forces. His first love is reference service, meeting with individuals, course groups, and other small groups to answer their information needs. His research interests include the ways nurses gather and use information, and benchmarking of library services. He was promoted to librarian IV (equivalent to professor) in 2003.

In his spare time, Pringle is a "Scouter" in the Boy Scouts, and reads almost everything, with emphasis on history, science fiction, and fantasy. Return to the Top of the Page
 

Speech & Hearing Sciences Students Educate Spokane-area Professionals

Sometimes the best place to learn is in a real-life setting. Realizing the benefits of experiential learning, Nancy Potter, assistant professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at WSU Spokane, sent students in her graduate course in dysphagia out into the field this semester.

Dysphagia, or swallowing disorders, is a term used to describe the inability to move food from the mouth to the stomach. Swallowing disorders can occur in all age groups, but are especially prevalent in the elderly. They are common in individuals with degenerative neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, but may also occur after sudden neurological damage (e.g. following a stroke).

With an estimated 10 million Americans being evaluated for dysphagia annually, disordered swallowing is a growing area of speech pathology.

As part of their coursework, Potter’s graduate students worked in groups to develop an inservice for educating nursing home personnel. They designed a Powerpoint presentation that addressed the nature and treatment of swallowing disorders and showed recommended feeding techniques. Subsequently, the students presented the inservices to nurses and nursing assistants at Spokane-area nursing homes.

Potter said that the responses from the participating nursing homes have been positive, and she is hoping to make this type of assignment a regularly recurring feature in her class. “It’s our way of becoming more visible in the community, doing a public service, and providing students with an opportunity to give a professional presentation to a group other than fellow students,” she said.Return to the Top of the Page


SIRTI Offers Tours of New Technology Center Building

Construction on the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) Technology Center is close to completion, and the building is currently available for tours.

Located at the corner of Pine and the extension of Riverside Avenue, the new two-story facility offers 39,100 square foot of space dedicated to clinical research and commercialization of technology for the greater Spokane market. The growth of the region’s biomedical sciences sector and the shortage of suitable biomedical lab space in the Spokane area were the main drivers for the construction of the building, which will host small and medium-sized businesses during their startup and early-growth stages.

Space for lease includes wet labs, office space, and flex space. In addition to providing prime research space, the SIRTI Technology Center will help its tenants ensure start-up success through business assistance services such as business assessments, business and marketing plan assistance, industry market research, and financial counseling.

“With the new STC building, we are in a great position to help Spokane startup companies take WSU technology to the marketplace. At SIRTI we also provide the necessary coaching to the management team to help them graduate out of the incubator in record time”, said John Overby, SIRTI’s technology incubation manager and a former CEO of Moscow-based AHA, the first company to market University of Idaho technology via a startup business.

The building was made possible by a $3 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and local matching funds provided through a loan from Washington Trust Bank.

To schedule a tour or get more information, contact John Overby, technology incubator manager, 358-2057. Return to the Top of the Page


Reminders for Your Safety
Provided by Campus Safety and Security

Campus Security is available 24/7 including all holidays. To reach them, dial #40 from any campus phone or call 358-7995.

Campus Safety:

  • Any suspicious activity should be immediately reported to Campus Security. 
  • When leaving the buildings try to do so in pairs. If fellow students are parked further away, drive them to their cars. If needed, Campus Security provides escort service to all students, faculty and staff at any hour of the day or night.
  • Know the locations of the code blue poles on campus.
  • During this time of year, please be especially careful while exiting buildings and using the crosswalks. Conditions may be icy!
  • If possible give yourself extra time to get to class.

Vehicle Safety:

  • Always lock your vehicle and remember what lot you parked in.
  • Never leave items displayed in your car. CDs, change, and even school books tempt thieves.
  • Sign your vehicle registration paper; do not leave it blank.
  • Before leaving home, check your vehicle for proper fluid levels and tire pressure.
  • If your battery is dead, contact Campus Security for a jump start.

Shopping Safety:

  • Have a plan before going shopping—know what stores you will visit.
  • Only carry the credit/debt cards that you will need.
  • Park your vehicle in a well-lit area. If this is not possible, choose a well-visited area.
  • Make sure your wallet is either on your person, or if it is in your purse, that your purse is closed or zipped shut.
  • Do not flash large amounts of money. Break it up into smaller amounts. If you're keeping money in your pockets, use your front pockets rather than your back pockets (especially for men).
  • While at a food court or a fast food restaurant, do not leave items unattended or your pocketbook hanging off the back of a chair. It could result in a quick disappearance and a lot of headaches.  
  • Have your car keys ready before getting to your car and lock your doors as soon as you get in.
  • After leaving a store, immediately place your items in the trunk before you drive to the next store. Return to the Top of the Page
     

Community Connections

  • Environmental Policy Book Reading
    Rocky Barker, environmental journalist at The Idaho Statesman, will be reading from his latest book, Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America (Island Press). The book looks at the century of environmental policy that led to the disastrous 1988 fires at Yellowstone National Park, and how the fighting of fires in the American West has influenced conservation efforts.

    Rocky will be speaking Monday, December 12, 5:00 p.m. at the Community Building, 35 West Main Street in Spokane and 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 West Main Street in Spokane. For more information, please contact John Spritz at (207) 775-6062 or by e-mail at spritz@maine.rr.com.
     

  • Ecological Design Double Feature
    The Spokane Translator Association (which brings you KYRS-Thin Air Radio on 92.3 FM) presents a double feature:
    • "Urban Dreams: Remaking Cities for Sustainability" featuring Andy Lipkis of TreePeople. One of the nation's most inspiring urban activists shares his bold but practical visions and models for revitalizing and greening our cities.
    • "The Fifth Revolution: The Evolution of Ecological Design Intelligence" presented by David Orr. Orr is renowned for his seminal work on environmental literacy in higher education and on ecological design.

    Lipkis and Orr will present on Saturday, December 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Building at 35 W. Main. A $5 donation is suggested. Free popcorn is provided. For more information call 747-3807.
     

  • Health Information Project
    Community-Minded Enterprises is kicking off the Health Information Project to assess where individuals find health information in Spokane County. The purpose of the assessment is to identify the community's resources and tools that people use to obtain health-related information. A final assessment report will be developed in January 2006 and will include key strategies for meeting consumer health information needs.

    Your help is needed in reaching individuals in our community! Please fill out the short online survey, and encourage individuals and customers within your networks to fill it out as well. This will greatly help our assessment effort.

    Return to the Top of the Page

Campus Bulletin Holiday Schedule

The Campus Bulletin will be published on a holiday schedule through mid-January. Look for the next issues on December 21, and January 11. As usual, the deadline for contributing (much-appreciated!) stories and photos is Friday, the week before publication.

Personnel & Staffing Changes

Comings:

  • Kathy Schwanz, Assistant Director, Cooperative Academic Library Services, effective 12/01/05

Promotions:

  • Laura Scholtens, Administrative Assistant A, Communications & Development, effective 10/01/05
  • Barbara King, Program Assistant, Parking Services, effective 10/17/05

Searches:

  • Research Associate/Research Scientist, Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research & Training, review of applications has begun
  • Assistant/Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, review of applications began 10/15/05
  • Clinic Services Manager, WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing People's Clinic, review of applications began 10/21/05
  • Assistant Professor, Pharmacotherapy, College of Pharmacy, review of applications begins 01/17/06
  • Clinical Assistant Professor (3 positions, two in Spokane, one in Yakima), Pharmacotherapy, College of Pharmacy, review of applications begins 01/17/06
  • Assistant/Associate Professor, Architecture, review of applications begins 1/1/06
  • Assistant/Associate Professor, WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing, review of applications began 10/01/05
  • Associate Professor/Associate Dean, WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing, review of applications began 10/01/05
  • Communications & Events Manager, Campus Advancement, review of applications began 11/21/05Return to the Top of the Page

Way to Go!

Here's where you make someone's day a little brighter by extending your thanks for a job well done. Send your “Way to Go!” comments to Laura Scholtens, scholtens@wsu.edu, and watch for your thanks to be published in an upcoming issue of the Campus Bulletin!

Find It on the Web

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The Bulletin is usually published on Wednesday biweekly during the academic year, every three weeks during breaks and summer session. the exact publication date may shift due to holidays. If you have an item that you'd like us to include, send it to us by Friday in the week before publication.
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The Bulletin covers news of interest to the faculty, staff, and friends of Washington State University Spokane, and associates on other WSU campuses and on the Riverpoint Campus.

Regular columns cover professional accomplishments, opportunities for involvement in the campus community and the Spokane community, notices of new developments on campus, upcoming events, personnel changes, and other news.

The Bulletin also serves as a source of information for external communications directed to alumni, future and current students, and friends of Washington State University Spokane. You'll read it here first!

Subscribers welcome! Send an e-mail to Judith Van Dongen, jcvd@wsu.edu, to request the WSU Spokane Campus Bulletin.

Editorial staff